NIPC Law

Author Hugh Venables    Licence CC BY-SA 2. 0   Source Wikimedia Commons   Jane Lambert Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (Mr Tom Mitcheson KC) Edwards v Boohoo.com UK Ltd and other s  [2025] EWHC 805 (IPEC) (3 Apr 202 5) This was an action for unregistered design right infringement. The claimant was Sonia Edwards, a fashion designer who promoted her work on Instagram, Facebook, CwtchyCwtchy, and other websites. CwtchyCwtchy seems to be derived from the Welsh word "cwtch" , which can be translated roughly as "hug". Ms Edwards complained that Boohoo.com UK Limited and its related companies ("Boohoo") infringed design rights in five of her designs by making and selling clothes to those designs. The action was tried by Mr Tom Mitcheson KC sitting as a deputy judge of the High Court on 30 and 31 Jan 2025. He handed down judgment on 3 April 2025. By para [151] of his judgment in Edwards v Boohoo.com UK Ltd and others [2025] EWHC 805 (IPEC) (3 April...

Jane Lambert Intellectual Property Enterprise Court ( Ian Karet)   Equisafety Ltd v Woof Wear Ltd [2024] EWHC 2478 (IPEC) (25 Sept 2024) This was an action by the Wirral-based company Equisafety Ltd ("Equisafety") for infringement of copyright in three high-visibility ("high vis") equestrian products. These were a waistcoat, an elasticated hat band, and a neckband for a horse some of which are shown in the above photos. The defendant, Woof Wear Ltd ("Woof Wear"), had exhibited similar goods at the Beta International Exhibition .  Woof Wear admitted that if copyright subsisted in those items and if the claimant company owned those copyrights then it would have infringed those rights.   Consequently, the issues to be tried were whether copyright subsisted in those high-vis items and, if it did, whether Equisafety owned those copyrights. The Preliminary Hearing At a hearing before Ms Pat Treacy on or about 24 Jan 2024, Equisafety was ordered to identify the...

Jane Lambert Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (Mr Recorder Campbell KC)  KF Global Brands Ltd v Lead Wear Ltd and others  [2023] EWHC 1303 (IPEC) (2 June 2023) This was an action for unregistered design right infringement.   The claimant, KF Global Brands Ltd ("KF"), claimed design right in the design of BKS-001 cargo trousers.  A pair of those trousers appears above.  The document below was alleged to record the design. KF alleged that a Bangladeshi company called S&S Swimwear made copies of those trousers (a sample of which appears below) in Bangladesh:   It complained that S&S sold those trousers to Lead Ware Ltd (the first defendant) and Mr Kamml Hassan (the second defendant) for resale in the UK.  The defendants denied that design right subsisted in the design of the  BKS-001 trousers on the ground that the BKS-001 design had been copied from the design of the following garment known as "the Aldi trousers." They also denied that...

Author Evan-Amos   Licence Public Domain   Source Wikimedia Commons   Jane Lambert Business and Property Courts , Intellectual Property List (chD) (Mr Justice Zacaroli PQ Systems Europe Ltd and another v Aughton and another [2023] EWHC 581 (Pat) This was an action for copyright infringement and breach of confidence. The claimants were two software houses, one English and the other American, which were at the relevant time owned by the same shareholder.  The English company was PQ Systems Europe Ltd ("PQSE") and the American one was Productivity-Quality Systems Inc.   The first defendant was one Jeff Aughton ("Mr Aughton"). He had been an employee and director of PQSE  The second defendant was a company owned by the first defendant and his wife called Factoria Ltd.  The Claimants' Software The claimants accused Mr Aughton of copying their software.  That software was statistical process control ("SPC") and gauge management software. SPC ...

Authors Ben Sutherland   Beyond My Ken   Licence CC BY-SA 2.0 Source Wikimedia Commons     Jane Lambert Chancery Division (Mr Justice Zacaroli) Smith v Dryden and others [2021] EWHC 2277 (11 Aug 2021) This was a claim by Kelly-Marie Smith against Kesi Dryden and others for copyright infringement. The claimant wrote the words and music for a song called Can You Tell Me .  She claimed that copyright subsisted in those works and that those copyrights had been infringed by the performance, recording and publication of the song Waiting All Night.  The song had been written by James Newman and recorded by the band Rudimental .  The action came on for trial before Mr Justice Zacaroli between 20 and 26 July 2021. At para [86] of his judgment in Smith v Dryden and others [2021] EWHC 2277, the learned judge dismissed the claim. The judge referred to s.1 (1) and s.3 (1) of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 . He also cited para [33] of Judg...

The Internet Messenger Author   Buky Schwartz   Licence CC BY-2,5   Source  Wikimedia Commons   Jane Lambert Court of Appeal (Sir Geoffrey Vos MR, Lady Justice Rose and Lord Justice Arnold)  Warner Music UK Ltd and others v TuneIn Inc ,    [2021] EWCA Civ 441 (26 March 2021) This was an appeal by Tunein Inc. against Mr Justice Birss judgment in Warner Music UK Ltd and others v TuneIn Inc [2019] EWHC 2923 (Ch) (1 Nov 2019) which I discussed in  Copyright - Warner Music UK Ltd and Others v TuneIn Inc.   4 Nov 2019.  The claimants, who between them, account for more than half of the market for digital sales of recorded music in the UK and about 43% globally, sued Tunein Ltd for copyright infringement. TuneIn does not collect, transmit or store any third party audio content but it does connect users to third party radio stations' streams and earns money from advertising and subscriptions.  Mr Justice Birss found that TuneIn h...