NIPC Law

Representation of the Registered Design Crown Copyright  Open Government Licence   Jane Lambert Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (HH Judge Hacon) Barber v Wakefield and others [2024] EWHC 3058 (IPEC) (28  Nov 2024) This was a claim for the infringement of UK registered design number 4028780 for a locksmith's letterbox tool handle.  A representation of the design appears above,  His Honour Judge Hacon who tried the action said that it was the design of a tool to be manipulated through the letterbox of a front door to open the door without a key.  Typically the tool is used to assist individuals who are locked out of their homes though, as the judge remarked at para [21] of his judgment in Barber v Wakefield and others [2024] EWHC 3058 (IPEC) (28 Nov 2024), other uses could be imagined. Alleged Infringement The proprietor of the registered design alleged that Ultimate Tools Ltd and the individuals who ran that company had infringed his regis...

Author Stacey Harris   Licence CC BY-SA 2.0   Source Wikimedia Commons   Jane Lambert Business and Property Courts, Intellectual Property List (Mr Justice Marcus Smith) Molavi v Gilbert and others    [2023] EWHC 646 (Ch) (23 March 2023) This was an application under  CPR 24.2 (1) (i) , by the writer, Virginia Gilbert, BBC Studios Production Ltd and the British Broadcasting Corporation for summary judgment in an action that had been brought against them by the screenwriter Dr Donna Molavi for copyright infringement and breach of confidence . They contended that the claimant had no real prospect of succeeding in her allegation that they had copied her storyline and other material for two episodes of the forensic pathology series Silent Witness .   Copying can be inferred where the following conditions are satisfied: there is an objective similarity between the original work and the alleged copy; and the author of the alleged copy had an opportunit...