NIPC Law

Photo Michael Maggs   Licence CC BY-SA 3.0   Jane Lambert I ntellectual Property Enterprise Court (Recorder Amanda Michaels)  Pliteq Inc and another v iKoustic Ltd and anothe r [2020] EWHC 2564 (IPEC) (2 Ocr 2020) This was a dispute between Pliteq Inc , a manufacturer of acoustic damping and sound control products and its UK subsidiary and iKoustic Ltd  ("iKoustiic"), their former distributor When the two sides fell out iKoustic held a large quantity of Pliteq stock which the claimants refused to take back. iKoustic used Pliteq's marks to sell off that stock while at the same time selling their own range of competing products,  Pliteq complained that the use of their marks in relation to iKoustic products amounted to trade mark infringement and passing off,  The defendants denied that their use of the claimants' marks amounted to infringement but if it did they could rely on the exhaustion defence set out in s.12 (1) of the Trade Marks Act 1994 and art 15 (...

Indian Subcontinent Author US Government Licence Reproduced licensed by the US Government Source Wikipedia Indian Subcontinent Jane Lambert Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (Recorder Amanda Michaels)  Asian Business Publications Ltd v British Asian Achievers Awards Ltd and Anothe r [2019] EWHC 1094 (IPEC) (2 May 2019) This was an action for passing off.   The claimant ran an event called the Asian Achievers Awards. The defendants ran a similar event called the British Asian Achievers Awards. These were both charity dinners held in top class West End hotels at which prominent individuals of subcontinental heritage were presented with certificates. The Issues The following issues were identified at the case management conference: "1) Whether the Claimant has acquired goodwill in the UK associated with the name or mark Asian Achievers Awards. 2) Whether the Defendants have (by using and/or threatening to use, the name or mark...

Author Basher Eyre Licence Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic Source Wikipedia 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 SUPPLEMENTS WARRIOR BLAZE WARRIOR FAT BURNER , and WARRIOR . All of those marks were registered for food supplements and some for foods or other goods.  Bodybuilding Warehouse compl...

Jane Lambert Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (Ms Amanda Michaels)   Madine and Another v Phillips and Others [2017] EWHC 3268 (IPEC) (13 Dec 2017)  Thelma Madine  makes wedding addresses.  According to Amanda Michaels, who tried an action that Mrs Madine brought against Miss Leanne Phillips and her mother Mrs Pauline Phillips, two of her former employees, for design right and copyright infringement and passing off, "the hallmark of her dress designs is their extravagance, not just in terms of the price of the gowns, but in terms of the size and weight of the skirts, which tend to have to be supported by hoops (like a crinoline), and the elaborate nature of the decoration applied to the dresses." Mrs Madine was featured in the Channel 4 documentary  My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding   which was broadcast some years ago. The Action One of Mrs Madine's customers was a bride who is referred to as "Delilah" in Miss Michael's judgment....

In  Gama Healthcare Ltd v PAL International Ltd [2016] EWHC 75 (IPEC) (20 Jan 2016)   the claimant, Gama Healthcare Ltd ( "Gama" )  sued PAL International Ltd. ( "PAL" ) for passing off. Gama complained that the get-up of Pal's Medipal  disinfectant and detergent wet wipes was so similar to the packaging of its Clinell wipes that it was likely to lead members of the trade to believe that the defendant's wipes were those of the  claimant or otherwise connected with the claimant. The goodwill claimed  lay in the use of those colours in combination with the colour block design for the front of the packaging described. The proportion of the front of the pack which was to be coloured was not specified, and no part of the packaging was relied upon apart from the front of the package. Gama pleaded that the front of the package was the critical aspect that would most commonly be viewed by the public. Gama was founded in 2004 by two...