NIPC Law

Conrad Lant Author Jonas Rogowski Licence CC BY-SA 3. 0 Source Wikimedia   Jane Lambert Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (Recorder Amanda Michaels)  Lant v Plastic Head Music Distribution Ltd and another [2025] EWHC 1954 (IPEC) (31 July 2025) Between 1979 and 1986, Conrad Lant  and Anthony Bray were members of a band called " Venom ".  Each of them had licensed the sale of merchandise reproducing logos and other artwork from that time without the other's consent.  Mr Lant brought proceedings against Mr Bray and his licensee, Plastic Head Music Distribution Limited, for infringement of any copyright that might have subsisted in those works.  Mr Bray and Plastic Head said that Mr Bray was entitled to copyright in some of those works and denied that copyright subsisted in others.  Mr Bray brought infringement proceedings against Mr Lant and his licensee, Razamataz.com Ltd., by way of counterclaim.  The action and counterclaim were tried by Rec...

Author Hugh Venables    Licence CC BY-SA 2. 0   Source Wikimedia Commons   Jane Lambert Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (Mr Tom Mitcheson KC) Edwards v Boohoo.com UK Ltd and other s  [2025] EWHC 805 (IPEC) (3 Apr 202 5) This was an action for unregistered design right infringement. The claimant was Sonia Edwards, a fashion designer who promoted her work on Instagram, Facebook, CwtchyCwtchy, and other websites. CwtchyCwtchy seems to be derived from the Welsh word "cwtch" , which can be translated roughly as "hug". Ms Edwards complained that Boohoo.com UK Limited and its related companies ("Boohoo") infringed design rights in five of her designs by making and selling clothes to those designs. The action was tried by Mr Tom Mitcheson KC sitting as a deputy judge of the High Court on 30 and 31 Jan 2025. He handed down judgment on 3 April 2025. By para [151] of his judgment in Edwards v Boohoo.com UK Ltd and others [2025] EWHC 805 (IPEC) (3 April...

  Jane Lambert Court of Appeal  (Lord Justices Lewison, Arnold and Birss)  Lidl Great Britain Ltd and Another v Tesco Stores Ltd and Anothe r (Rev1) [2024] EWCA Civ 262 (19 March 2024) This is the third of my supplementary articles on Lord Justice  Arnold's judgment in Lidl Great Britain Ltd and Another v Tesco Stores Ltd and Anothe r (Rev1) [2024] EWCA Civ 262 (19 March 2024). I explained the reasons for these supplementary articles in the second paragraph of Lord Justice Arnold's Guidance on Trade Mark Law in the Lidl v Tesco Appeal on 25 March 2024. In this article, I discuss Lord Justice Arnold's guidance on copyright which he set out in paras [38] to [44] of his judgment. Lord Justice Arnold acknowledged at para [38] that little dispute before the judge as to the applicable principles of copyright law but he chose to comment on them anyway because Mrs Justice Joanna Smith "did not have the benefit of  t he subsequent decisions of the Court of Appeal] in ...

Author Satoshi Nakamoto Copyright released   Jane Lambert Court of Appeal (Lady Justice Asplin and Lord Justices Arnold and Warby)  Wright and others v BTC Core and others (Rev1) [2023] EWCA Civ 868 (20 July 2023) This was an appeal against Mr Justice Mellor's refusal in   Wright and others v BTC Core and others  [2023] EWHC 222 (Ch) (7 Feb 2023 to permit service outside England and Wales of claim forms alleging copyright infringement.  The claimants were Craig Steven Wright who claims to have created  Bitcoin  and two of Dr Wright's companies.  Bitcoin is a  cryptocurrency  that is attributed to one  Satoshi Nakamoto .  Dr Wright claims to be Mr Nakamoto.  The defendants are companies and individuals from around the world who are accused of copying matter known as "the Bitcoin File Format."  Dr Wright and his companies say that copyright subsists in the Bitcoin File Format and claim ownership on ...

Jane Lambert Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (Mr Recorder Campbell KC)  KF Global Brands Ltd v Lead Wear Ltd and others  [2023] EWHC 1303 (IPEC) (2 June 2023) This was an action for unregistered design right infringement.   The claimant, KF Global Brands Ltd ("KF"), claimed design right in the design of BKS-001 cargo trousers.  A pair of those trousers appears above.  The document below was alleged to record the design. KF alleged that a Bangladeshi company called S&S Swimwear made copies of those trousers (a sample of which appears below) in Bangladesh:   It complained that S&S sold those trousers to Lead Ware Ltd (the first defendant) and Mr Kamml Hassan (the second defendant) for resale in the UK.  The defendants denied that design right subsisted in the design of the  BKS-001 trousers on the ground that the BKS-001 design had been copied from the design of the following garment known as "the Aldi trousers." They also denied that...