NIPC Law

Jane Lambert Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (Judge Melissa Clarke)  Ashley Wilde Group Ltd v BCPL Ltd [2019] EWHC 3166 (IPEC) (21 Nov2019) This was an action for infringement of copyright in a prototype for a bed linen range.  An example of a duvet cover from that range appears at the top of the above photo together with an example of the allegedly infringing item at the bottom. The claimant's product, known as "Evangeline" was sold as part of the "Kylie Minogue at Home" range even though the prototype had been made by one of the claimant's employees and not by Kylie Minogue.   The defendant's, called "Amore", was under the "Buy Caprice Home" brand even though it had been designed not by the Caprice in question (the celebrity Caprice Bourret) but by a freelance designer. In her judgment of 21 Nov 2019, Her Honour Judge Melissa Clarke dismissed the claim on the ground that there had been no copying.  She ...

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 ...

In our very first NIPC newsletter which we published in June 1997 I wrote a case note on Mr. Justice Lloyd's decision in  Creation Records Ltd. and Others v News Group Newspapers Ltd   [1997] EMLR 444, [1997] EWHC Ch 370, (1997) 16 Tr LR 544. In that case Mr. Noel Gallagher of Oasis and others applied for an interlocutory injunction to restrain The Sun from offering for sale and selling a poster of Oasis that featured a photo of an elaborate set that included a white Rolls Royce in a country club swimming pool. The Sun's photograph was very similar to the photograph that appeared on an Oasis album cover. The similarity arose because The Sun's photographer shot the same scene at roughly the same time and from the same angle as Mr. Gallagher's photographer but he did not reproduce any part of Oasis's print or negative. The learned judge held that the plaintiffs had no arguable case for infringement of copyright though he accepted that they had an arguable case for br...