ABSTRACT
Despite the diversity of intellectual property rights, the remedies available for infringement have a family resemblance that enables them to be described in general. Points of difference from right to right have been noted at the appropriate places. Intellectual property right owners have a particular need for quick and effective remedies, without which the right would be nugatory and any victory over infringers pyrrhic. There are five reasons for this need:
(a) copying does not incur the development costs, often very large, incurred by a legitimate producer, and is often easy and inexpensive, therefore illegitimate copying has the potential to erode, or even destroy, the legitimate market, and do so very quickly;
(b) copying that is inferior in quality will also destroy the right owner’s reputation for producing high quality goods;
(c) damages may amount to very inadequate compensation for such harm;
(d) if the remedy is slow in coming, the product may well be out of date, and superseded by new developments, or fashions, by the date of judgment;
(e) new copying technology, and new techniques of information storage, have enabled piracy and counterfeiting to become so lucrative and easy as to drive legitimate right owners out of business, and have greatly increased the capacity for unauthorised reproduction both commercially and domestically.
