NIPC Law

  Jane Lambert Patents Court (HH Judge Hacon)  Safestand Ltd v Weston Homes PLC and others [2023] EWHC 3250 (Pat) (19 Dec 2023) This was a claim by Safestand Limited ("Safestand") against Weston Homes Plc, Weston (Logistics) Limited. and Weston Group Limited ("the Weston companies" or "Weston") for patent and registered design infringement. There was also a counterclaim by Weston for revocation of the patents for obviousness and invalidation of the registered designs for want of unity and/or clarity and/or lack of novelty and/or individual character.  The action and counterclaim came before His Honour Judge Hacon sitting as a judge of the High Court between 8 and 19 June 2023.  He delivered judgment on 19 Dec 2023 (see Safestand Ltd v Weston Homes PLC and others [2023] EWHC 3250.  By para [254] of his judgment, he held that the patents were valid and infringed but the registered designs were invalid. The Patents Safestand's patents were  UK Patent No...

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...

  Jane Lambert Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (HH Judge Hacon) Marks and Spencer Plc v Aldo Stores Ltd . [2023]EWHC 178 (IPEC) 31 Jan 2023 This was a claim for the infringement of the following registered designs: 6134278   6134280   6134282   6134284 , and  6134276 . The designs were registered on 29 April 2021 by Marks and Spencer Plc ("M&S"). M&S complained that Aldi Stores Ltd ("Aldi") had infringed those registered designs by marketing and selling gin liqueurs in the following  bottles from Nov 2021: The action came on for trial before His Honour Judge Hacon on 16 Dec 2022 who delivered judgment on 31 Jan 2023.  The last of the 5 designs was not pursued.   At para [84] of his judgment, the learned judge concluded that the marketing of those gin liqueur products infringed the first 4 registered designs ( Marks and Spencer Plc v Aldi Stores Ltd . [2023] EWHC 178 (IPEC)). Legislation Judge Hacon noted that the Registere...