NIPC Law

Manchester Civil Justice Centre Author Skip88  Licence Public Domain Source Wikimedia Commons Jane Lambert Court of Appeal (Lords Justices Lewison, Phillips and Snowdon) Cheshire Estate & Legal Ltd. v Blanchfield and others [2024] EWCA Civ 1317 (5 Nov 2024) This was an appeal from the judgment of His Honour Judge Bever sitting in Manchester as a judge of the High Court. The learned judge had dismissed with costs a claim by Cheshire Estate & Legal Ltd. ("Cheshire Estate") against two of its former directors and the company that they were setting up for conspiracy and breach of fiduciary, contractual and confidential duties. The Alleged Wrongdoing The defendants were accused of taking preliminary steps to set up a competing enterprise before they had resigned as Cheshire Estate's directors. Those steps included registering the trading name of the new business, incorporating the company as the corporate vehicle for their venture, appointing themselves as directors ...

Author Aero Icarus Licence CC BY-SA 2.0   Source Wikipedia ATR 42 J ane Lambert Chancery Division (Mr Justice Nugee) easyGroup Ltd. v    Empresa Aerea De Servicios y Facilitation Logistica Integral SA (Easyfly SA) and others [2020] EWHC 40 (Ch) (14 Jan 2020) This was an action by easyGroup Ltd . against the Colombian airline Empresa Aerea de Servicios y Facilitation Logistica Integral SA which trades in the name or style of EasyFly  and its president Alfonso Avila Velandia for trade mark infringement, passing off and conspiracy. easyGroup complained that EastFly's website supplied air tickets to British travellers under the EasyFly sign. It also sought to join the French manufacturer, ATR Aircraft , as a third defendant. ATR had flown aircraft in EasyFly's livery on test flights around France and on a delivery mission through Spanish airspace. It had also published a press release announcing its sale of aircraft to EasyFly at the Farnboroug...

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 ...

Chartreuse Author Jarv Licence Free Art Licence  Source Wikimedia Commons Jane Lambert Patents subsist for 20 years, copyrights for the life of the author plus 70 years but the obligation neither to disclose nor make use of business or technical information that is disclosed in confidence can last indefinitely.  The recipe for Chartreuse is a case in point.  That distinctive liqueur has been emulated and occasionally counterfeited but never replicated. All members of the World Trade Organization are obliged to protect undisclosed information from unauthorized use and disclosure by art 39 of the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights ("TRIPS") but different countries including different EU member states discharge that obligation in different ways. Such differences affect the functioning of the internal market.  To minimize those differences the European Council adopted the trade secrets directive (Dir...

Kerry Group's Headquarters in Tralee Author: Hajotthu Source: Wikipedia Creative Commons Licence Kerry Ingredients (UK) Ltd v Bakkavor Group Ltd and Others [2016] EWHC 2448 (Ch) (7 Oct 2016) Mr Justice Newey The issue in this case was whether a food manufacturer that had received secret information on the manufacture of edible infused oils from its supplier for health and safety and regulatory purposes only could use that information to develop its own range of infused oils. The Parties The claimant was a wholly owned subsidiary of Kerry Group Plc . The group describes itself as "the largest and broadest industry innovation and solutions provider in the global ingredients and flavours market." The Kerry Group produces more than 30 infused oils at its plant at Padiham near Burnley. Its main products, each of which is a clear liquid, are infused with mint, chilli, basil, lemon, garlic, rosemary or coriander. Those oils have a variety of ...