The Tory MP for Bridgwater, Ian Liddell-Grainger, introduced this bill to Parliament on April 24 2002..

The bill would amend the 1977 Patents Act to allow courts to award damages to a patent holder in the case of infringement of their patent. Such award will take notice of the "flagrancy" with which the infringement occurred. It is a response to recent research that shows that small companies are finding it harder to defend their intellectual property, mainly due to cost.

The bill was apparently inspired by the legal fight of the UK-based AllVoice computer software company against the giant US computer company, IBM. AllVoice claims that IBM has exploited its voice recognition technology.

Liddell-Grainger originally introduced a very similar bill under the private member's ballot, but has reintroduced it as a ten-minute rule bill, after the original bill was withdrawn after lawyers identified a problem with the drafting.

The bill would have given courts the power to award "exemplary" damages and lawyers were concerned that this phrase had a precise legal meaning different to the one intended.

Exemplary damages are extra to traditional compensation, designed to act as a punishment and a deterrent to others. Liddell-Grainger tried to change the wording of the bill to "additional" damages, but because the word appeared in the long title, it could not be changed. The measure therefore had to be withdrawn.

Following the withdrawal, the UK Patent Office conducted a consultation exercise on the bill.

House of Commons

First reading: April 24 2002