Industrial Property Law

A liability suit against an industrial property advisor acting as an agent or under a service contract (contrat d'enterprise) is time-barred after five years, in accordance with Article 2224 of the Civil Code, which provides that “personal or property actions are time-barred after five years from the day on which the owner of a right knew or should have known the facts enabling him to exercise it”. Thus, the statute of limitations for a company to bring an action for liability against its intellectual property attorney in the event that the company is held liable for infringement only runs from the date on which the damage occurred or from the date on which it was revealed to the victim if the latter establishes that he or she had no prior knowledge of it . The damage must be certain, and not merely contingent.

Cass. com. 1 July 2008, LawLex202100002908JBJ.

17. Statute of limitations