NIPC Law

Royal Courts of Justice Author  Rafa Esteve Licence  Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 4.0 International Source  Wikipedia Jane Lambert Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (HH Judge Hacon)  The National Guild of Removers & Storers Ltd v Central Moves Ltd and Another [2017] EWHC 3175 (IPEC) (7 Dec 2017) This was an appeal by the  National Guild of Removers & Storers ("NGRS")  against an award of £1,275 damages in its favour by District Judge Vary for passing off. By dismissing that appeal, His Honour Judge Hacon seems to have settled a 7 year controversy as to what should be the correct measure of damages for what is often an inadvertent misrepresentation of continued membership of the NGRS by a removal or storage business that no longer wishes to remain a member of that guild. The NGRS At paragraph [4] of his judgment in  The National Guild of Removers & Storers Ltd v Central Moves Ltd and Another...

The National Guild of Removers and Storers is a trade association for the removal industry. According to its website "The Guild's priority has always been, and remains, consumer protection in an industry where there are no specific laws to protect the moving public" and its efforts in respect of consumer protection have been recognized by Which.  As a result, the Guild has a good reputation among the public making it advantageous to become a member.  The Guild has a number of trade marks which it allows its members to reproduce on their stationery, marketing literature and websites for so long as they remain members of the Guild. When a remover ceases to be a member of the Guild it is required to remove the trade mark and references to the Guild immediately. If it fails to do so the Guild sues it for trade mark infringement or passing off. The Guild has brought a number of infringement proceedings over the years against its former members and the damages that have...