NIPC Law

Jane Lambert

Chancery Division (Daniel Alexander QC) Freshasia Foods Ltd v Jing Lu [2018] EWHC 3644 (Ch)

The first intellectual property judgment of the New Year is Mr Daniel Alexander QC's decision in Freshasia Foods Ltd v Jing Lu [2018] EWHC 3644 (Ch) (4 Jan 2019).  The learned deputy judge seems to have made his order on 19 Dec 2018 after a hearing that had taken place the previous day but he delivered the reasons for his order on 4 Jan 2019.

The Dispute
Mr Alexander described Freshasia Foods Ltd. ("Freshasia") as "a UK registered company which supplies food products, particularly dumplings and sliced meats, to Chinese retail shops and restaurants." He added that it has between 100 and 200 employees, a turnover in the millions of pounds and about 500 customers in total in the UK and the EU. He noted that there are only a few employers in the industry, which is a very specialist market of frozen and packaged food sold mainly to international student customers.

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Jane Lambert

Chancery Division (Mrs Justice Rose) Jaguar Land Rover Ltd, v Twisted Automotive Ltd,[2018] EWHC 3536 (Ch)

This was an appeal by Jaguar Land Rover Ltd. against Louise White's decision in Re LR, Twisted Automotive Lt.d. v Jaguar Land Rover Ltd.BL O/289/18  15 May 2018 to refuse that company's application to register the letters "LR" as a trade mark for various goods in class 12.  The application was filed on 23 Aug 2016 under trade mark number UK3191949.

The Opposition
By that application Jaguar Land Rover. applied to register those Letters for the following goods:

"Motor land vehicles; parts and fittings for vehicles; engines for motor land vehicles; wheels for vehicles; alloy wheels; wheel trims; wheel rims; hub caps for wheels; hub centre caps; wheel covers; wheel sprockets; arm rests for vehicle seats; luggage bags specially adapted for fitting in the boot of vehicles; car interior organizer bags, nets and trays specially adapted for fitting in veh…

Jane Lambert

Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (Recorder Amanda Michaels) KBF Enterprises Ltd v Gladiator Nutrition 3.0Ltd and Others[2018] EWHC 3041 (IPEC)

This was an action for trade mark infringement and passing off.  There was also a counterclaim for a declaration that the trade marks were invalid and for a finding that the claimant was passing itself off as connected with the third defendant, Mr Daniel Singh.

The Dispute
The claimant carried on business as Bodybuilding Warehouse.  It claims to be "the number one bodybuilding supplements website and manufacturer in the UK" and has registered the following word marks:
WARRIOR SUPPLEMENTSWARRIOR BLAZEWARRIOR FAT BURNER, andWARRIOR. All of those marks were registered for food supplements and some for foods or other goods.  Bodybuilding Warehouse complained that Mr Singh, Mr John Paul Gardner, the fifth defendant, and the companies that they controlled had infringed those trade marks by marketing and selling food suppleme…

Jane Lambert
The Supreme Court (Lords Mance, Sumption, Reed, Hodge and Briggs) Warner-Lambert Company LLC v Generics (UK) Ltd) [2018] UKSC 56 (118 4 Nov 2018)

This was an appeal from the decision of the Court of Appeal in Warner-Lambert Company LLC v Generics (UK) Ltd (t/a Mylan) and Others[2016] EWCA Civ 1006 which I discussed in The Pregabalin Appeal: Generics v Warner-Lambert17 Oct 2016. In that appeal, the Court of Appeal upheld the decision of Mr Justice Arnold in Generics (UK) Ltd (t/a Mylan) v Warner-Lambert Company LLC[2016] RPC 3, [2015] EWHC 2548 (Pat), [2015] CN 1499 which I blogged in
The Pregabalin Trial: Generics (UK) Ltd v Warner-Lambert Company LLC18 Sept 2015 and his refusal to allow the patent to be amended in  Generics (UK) Ltd (t/a Mylan) v Warner-Lambert Company LLC  [2016] RPC 16, [2015] EWHC 3370 (Pat).

The Importance of this Appeal In the first paragraph of his judgment, Lord Sumption said:
"An important objective of modern pharmaceutical research is the dis…

Jane Lambert

Court of Justice of the European Union ( K. Lenaerts, President, R. Silva de Lapuerta, Vice-President, J.-C. Bonichot, A. Arabadjiev, M. Vilaras (Rapporteur), E. Regan, T. von Danwitz and C. Toader, Presidents of Chamber, A. Rosas, E. Juhász, M. Ilešič, M. Safjan, C.G. Fernlund, C. Vajda and S. Rodin, Judges) C-310/17, Levola Hengelo BV v Smilde Foods BV ECLI:EU:C:2018:899, [2018] EUECJ C-310/17, EU:C:2018:899 (13 Nov 2018)


This is one of the most remarkable cases that I have ever read.   It is important because it greatly increases the range of creations in which copyright can subsist.   I first thought it was a bit of a joke because that is how it was presented in the press (see  Food taste 'not protected by copyright' rules EU court13 Nov 2018 BBC website).  Now I see its potential for all the creative industries.

The owner of the intellectual property rights in a spreadable dip called Heks'nkass sued Smilde Foods for infringing its copyright in the taste of…