NIPC Law

Jane Lambert Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (Ms. Pat Treacy)  Wise Payments Ltd v With Wise Ltd and other s [2024] EWHC 234 (IPEC) (9 Feb 2024) This was a case management conference before Ms Pat Treacy sitting as a deputy Enterprise Judge in an action for trade mark infringement and passing off and a counterclaim by the first defendant for passing off.  One of the issues to be decided in the CMC was whether Kristo Käärmann, Taavet Hinrikus and Dean Nash should be joined as defendants to the first defendant's counterclaim. Mr  Käärmann and Mr Hinrikus had founded the claimant company.  Mr Käärmann was the chief executive officer and a director of the claimant.  Mr Hinrikus had been the claimant's chairman and a director.  Mr Nash had been its secretary and general counsel. The first defendant brought its application to join Messrs Käärmann, Hinrikus and Nash under CPR20.5 , It also applied for permission to amend its defence and counterclaim...

Saint Barthélemy Author Starus   Licence CC-BY-SA 3.9   Source Wikimedia Commons   Jane Lambert Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (Mr Recorder Campbell) Easygroup Ltd and others v Easyway SBH and another (Rev1) [2021] EWHC 2007 (IPEC) (22 July 2021) Saint Barthélemy is a small French possession in the West Indes.  Easyway SBH is a company incorporated in the territory which runs a meet and greet service on the island that has included flight booking and arranging car hires.  All its services are performed on Saint Barthélemy but it has a website in English that is used by travel agents and individuals from the UK. The company corresponded with enquirers who approached it through the website.  Stephane-Michel Roche, the company's founder, director owner of 60% of its shares, estimated that between 200 and 250 of Easyway's customers were British and they constituted some 3% of its business. Despite their remoteness from the UK and even though all ...

Jane Lambert Patents Court (Mr Recorder Campbell) Bayerische Motoren Werke AG v Premier Alloy Wheels (UK) Ltd and others [2020] EWHC 2094 (Pat) (30 July 2020) This was an action by the motor manufacturer. Bayerische Motoren Werke AG  ("BMW)  for trade mark and registered Community design ("RCD") infringement, passing off and, in the case of one the defendants, Devon Thompson ("Devon"), breach of contract.  There was also a counterclaim for revocation of the RCD.  The main defendant was a company called DGT Wheels and Tyres Ltd ("DGT") the ordinary shares of which were owned by  Jerome Layzell ("JL") who was also its only director.   DGT had a warehouse on an industrial estate in Basildon as well as retail premises elsewhere in that town.   The warehouse was operated by another company called Premier Alloy Wheels (UK) Ltd ("Premier") which was owned and run by JL's stepfather, Devon. Devon was in prison when the trial took...

Jane Lambert Chancery Division (Kelyn Bacon QC) Red Bull GmbH v Big Horn UK Ltd and other s [2020] EWHC 124 (Ch) (30 Jan 2020) This was a claim by Red Bull GmbH  against Big Horn UK Ltd. and its sole director    Lyubomir Enchev. for infringement of the following European trade marks: EU003629342 , EU000052746  and  EU001564301   Red Bull complained that the defendants had distributed a drink in Bulgaria and the UK that has been manufactured by a Polish company under the signs that appear in the right-hand column of the table in paragraph 6 of the transcript.  The action came on for trial before Kelyn Bacon QC between 15 and 17 Jan 2020. The learned deputy judge gave judgment to the claimant on 30 Jan 2020. Red Bill alleged that Big Horn and Mr Enchev had infringed its rights under art 9 (2) (b) and (c) of  Council Regulation (EC) No 207/2009 of 26 February 2009 on the Community trade mark (codified version) (Text with EEA rele...

Red Deer Antlers Author: Mehmet Karatay Licence: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 unported Source: Wikipedia Antler Jane Lambert Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (HH Judge Melissa Clarke) ARB Sakes Ltd v Rich Energy Ltd. and Others   [2019] EWHC 1207 (IPEC) 9 May 2019 This was a copyright infringement claim. The claimant trades as Whyte's Bikes  and if you visit its website you should see a very distinctive antler logo. That was designed by two of its employees, Guy Farrant and Mark Morgan. The first defendant supplies an energy drink known as Rich Energy  which it promotes with a racing car.  If you visit its website right now (but probably not for much longer) you will see a not dissimilar logo. The claimant claimed that the first defendant had copied the artwork for its logo. As the first defendant had registered that logo as a trade mark, the claimant applied for it to be declared invalid on the ground that its ...

The Rolls Building Author Basher Eyre. Licence Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 2.0  Source Wikipedia Jane Lambert Intellectual Property Enterprise Court  (Judge Melissa Clarke)   Birlea Furniture Ltd v Platinum Enterprise (UK) Ltd and another  [2018] EWHC 26 (IPEC) (11 Jan 2018)  Sites like Amazon  offer unparalleled opportunities to both suppliers and consumers. To suppliers they offer a massive worldwide market that they could never access in any other way. Conversely, they offer consumers a wider choice of suppliers than would otherwise be available thereby enabling them to source products at the optimum price. Sellers are allocated a unique identifier which Amazon calls an ASIN ("Amazon Standard Identification Number") . Such identifier allows consumers to specify the goods they need and identify the businesses that supply them. That's fine so long as the ASIN is used by the same supplier, the goods are from the sa...

Victoria Plums Author Rasbak Source Wikipedia Creative Commons Licence Victoria Plum Ltd (t/a Victoria Plumb) v Victorian Plumbing Ltd and Others [2016] EWHC 2911 (Ch) (18 Nov 2016)  Mr Justice Henry Carr In this case, Victoria Plum Ltd . had registered the words VICTORIA PLUMB as a UK trade mark in relation to a range of goods and services in classes 11, 20 and 35 under trade mark number 3,066,332. The specified services include: "the bringing together, for the benefit of others, of…[bathroom items]… enabling customers to conveniently view and purchase those goods… via a website." The question before Mr Justice Henry Carr was whether that trade mark was infringed by a process known as pay-per-click bidding. Pay-Per-Click Bidding Just about everyone who has ever used the internet will be familiar with Google, Yahoo and other search engines. Whenever a user wants to search the internet he or she enters search terms that the user thinks...