IP Handbook - Home
The comprehensive guide to the world's leading tax firms

"It won't be a surprise for you to hear that these are difficult times," says one glum partner, summing up the year in Hungary. In short, after flickers of life last year, the Hungarian market is once more battening down the hatches. "Unfortunately,... [more]

"It won't be a surprise for you to hear that these are difficult times," says one glum partner, summing up the year in Hungary. In short, after flickers of life last year, the Hungarian market is once more battening down the hatches.

"Unfortunately, in terms of budget, clients are absolutely beat!" comments one lawyer, while another adds: "IP budgets are not large. Clients are more selective with what they want to pursue."

This difficulty is reflected on both sides of the market, with contentious work particularly down: "The litigation pie is smaller – the market is shrinking," says one lawyer. They do however point out that IP corporate support work is fairly constant due to a relatively healthy M&A market, something to be pleased about in a difficult climate.

Of course, prosecution firms were dealt a body blow with the adoption of the London Agreement last year, which struck out a lot of bread-and-butter translation work. "The London Agreement has led to attorneys losing a lot of work. We are not very impressed!" says one professional.

One development was in copyright, with collection societies having their stranglehold broken: "In copyright, they have broken down the monopoly status of the collecting societies. Each type of right used to have one for composers, then for performers, but it's changed now," says a lawyer.