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 (...

Jane Lambert Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (Judge Hacon) Nomination Di Antonio E Paolo Gensini SNC and another v Brealey and another (t/a JSC Jewellery) [2019] EWHC 599 (13 March 2019) This was an action for trade mark infringement and passing off. The Claimants The first claimants are an Italian partnership dealing in charm bracelets.   The second is an Italian company that markets those bracelets.  The judge referred to the claimants collectively as "Nomination."   The second claimant advertises the  bracelets  in the UK on its website at www.nomination.com. Judge Hacon, who tried the action, called one of those products as a "composable bracelet" at paragraph [7] of his judgment. and described it as follows: "It consists of individual links, measuring about 10 x 9mm, which may be detached from each other and relinked in any order to the taste of the wearer. These include what were called 'base links', which are ma...

Jane Lambert In Cosmetic Warriors Ltd and Another v amazon.co.uk Ltd and Another [2014] EWHC 181 Mr John Baldwin QC, sitting as a judge of the High Court, had to decide whether causing advertising  to appear on an an Internet user's screen for products that competed with those of the claimants whenever  the user entered the claimants' trade mark into a search box amounted to an infringement of the claimants' mark. The Parties The claimants ( "Lush" ) manufacture and supply cosmetics under the Lush brand. They are well known for their colourful soaps and bath bombs.   The first named claimant is the registered proprietor, and the second its licensee, of Community trade mark number 01388313  ( "the CTM" ) under which the word LUSH is registered for "Perfumes; bath preparations; non-medicated toilet preparations; cosmetic preparations; lotions, powders and creams all for use on the skin; dentifrices; depilatory preparations; de...