NIPC Law

  Jane Lambert Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (Mr David Stone)  Waterrowe (UK) Ltd v Liking Ltd (T/A Topiom) [ 2022] EWHC 2084 (IPEC) 5 Aug 2022 This was an application by the defendant to strike out or, alternatively, obtain summary judgment to dismiss, an action for copyright infringement.  The defendant also applied for summary judgment on its counterclaim for a declaration that the work in which copyright was alleged to subsist was not a work of artistic craftsmanship.  The claimant claimed that copyright subsisted in its water resistance rowing machine shown above as a work of artistic craftsmanship and that the defendant had infringed that copyright by making copies of the claimant's machine. The defendant admitted copying but denied the subsistence of copyright in the machine.  The action and counterclaim therefore depended on the single issue of whether the machine was or was not a work of artistic craftsmanship. The applications came on be...

  Ja ne Lambert irst  Chancery Division (Mr Justice Mellor)  A U Vodka Ltd v NE10 Vodka Ltd and another [2022] EWHC 2371 (Ch) (21 Sept 2022) The claimant in these proceedings distilled and distributed the vodka on the left.  The first defendant the vodka on the right.  The claimant applied for an interim injunction to retrain the first defendant and its sole director and shareholder (the second defendant) from marketing and selling the vodka on the right until trial or further order.   The defendants applied to strike out the claim against the second defendant and sought an expedited trial.   The application and cross-applications came on before Mr Justice Mellor as applications by order on 16 Aug 2022.  At the end of the hearing, his lordship refused the application for an injunction and the cross-application for a strikeout but granted a speedy trial.   He set out his reasons in  AU Vodka Ltd v NE10 Vodka Ltd and anothe...

  Intellectual Property Intellectual Enterprise Court (Mr Nicholas Caddick KC) Match Group LLC v Muzmatch Ltd . [ 2022] EWHC 941 (IPEC) 22 April 2022 This was an action for trade mark infringement and passing off. The claimants are members of the Match Group which operate a worldwide online dating service.  The defendants operated an online dating service for Muslims formerly known as Muzmatch but now called Muzz. The claim was issued in the implementation period after the UK had left the European Union but while EU law continued to apply.  The Match Group complained that Muzz had infringed several of its UK and EU trade marks. The case came on before Mr Nicholas Caddicl QC (as he then was) on 17 and 18 Jan 2022. At para [149] of his judgment of 20 April 2022, the learned deputy judge found that the defendants had infringed the trade marks and were liable for passing off (see Match Group LLC  and others v Muzmatch Ltd and another    [2022] EWHC 941 (IPEC))...