Infringement litigation can be disruptive and expensive, the paper Patents, Trade Marks and Design Rights: Groundless Threats: A Consultation Paper examines the law regarding false accusations of patent, trade mark or design right infringement, the mere threat of which may cause significant commercial damage to a business. The existing law provides protection to businesses if an infringement threat is groundless. The groundless threat provisions were introduced in the nineteenth century to resolve disputes about steam engines. The Commission believes that they need to be adapted to the new global battles over information technology and is consulting on how they can be brought up to date. The Commission is consulting on two approaches to reform: (i) to build on the reforms made to patent law in 2004 and to extend these to the other rights, also proposing that legal advisers should be protected from liability for groundless threats; and