International Law Association’s Guidelines on Intellectual Property and Private International Law (“Kyoto Guidelines”): General Provisions

The chapter “General Provisions” of the International Law Association’s Guidelines on Intellectual Property and Private International Law (“Kyoto Guidelines”) focuses on their scope of application. It provides the conditions under which the Guidelines are intended to be applied. The Guidelines cover only cross border disputes and transactions between private parties involving intellectual property rights. Hence, they only refer to situations connected to more than one State. The definition of “intellectual property rights” is of particular relevance to determine the scope. Given the similarities to certain claims based on unfair competition the possibility to apply the Guidelines mutatis mutandis to such claims is also contemplated