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Anton Piller Order
An Anton Piller Order is sometimes referred to as a civil search warrant allowing a plaintiff to ask the defendant for permission to enter the premises of a defendant to search for, copy and retain for Court proceedings incriminating evidence which may be destroyed. This type of injunction arose out from the intellectual property case Anton Piller KG v Manufacturing Processes Ltd and Others [1976] 1 All ER.
In this case, the plaintiff was the copyright proprietor of a machine design. The defendant had infringed the plaintiff’s copyright by using confidential information and manufactured a machine of the plaintiff’s design. There was grave concern that the defendant would destroy evidence or send the documents out of the jurisdiction if notified of the Court action. This would affect any discovery of evidence against the defendant during the course of the Court action. The English Court of Appeal granted an injunction ordering defendant to permit the plaintiff to enter the defendant’s premises to search and seize the incriminating evidence, hence the name ‘Anton Piller Order’.
The main use for an Anton Piller Order is in intellectual property cases. In a lot of intellectual property cases, the evidence of infringement is usually in the hands of the wrongdoers. It is likely in those circumstances the wrongdoers will destroy or hide evidence when they are sued. It would be then very difficult to prove infringement. An Anton Piller Order is obtained ex parte without the wrongdoer's knowledge. Therefore, the execution of an Anton Piller Order is a surprise raid giving the plaintiff the best chance to obtain evidence of infringement.
Whilst the Anton Piller case itself is an intellectual property case, the principles on which the Court grants an Anton Piller Order can be applied in other cases. If the circumstances fit and there is a fear that documents or evidence may be destroyed, then the Court may grant an Anton Piller Order in other civil cases. It may be appropriate to obtain an Anton Piller Order together with a Mareva Injunction in fraud cases or breach of trust cases. In such cases, the wrongdoers shown to be dishonest are likely to destroy evidence.
The conditions the Court will want an applicant to satisfy are as follows:
- That the applicant has a good prima facie case
- That evidence may be destroyed or there is a risk that it may be destroyed
- That the evidence sought must be relevant to the case
A good prima facie case is not difficult to put forth to the Court. The difficulty is to show credible reason why you think the evidence held by the wrongdoer would be destroyed or hidden. Because of this difficulty, an Anton Piller Order is usually granted in intellectual property cases and fraud cases.