NIPC Law

  Jane Lambert Chancery Division  (Mr Justice Marcus Smith) L ifestyle Equities CV v The Copyrights Group Ltd and others [2021] EWHC 1212 (Ch) (10 May 2021) This was an action for trade mark infringement and passing off,   The first claimant was the registered proprietor of the following European Union and United Kingdom trade marks and the second claimant was its exclusive licensee: EU005482484   EU00908456469   EU000364257   EU000532895   EU015737653  and  UK00001259226 The claimants complained that the first, second and third defendants had used a mark which has unfortunately not been reproduced in the BAILII transcript or in any of the reports on Westlaw.  They also alleged that those defendants' use of that mark amounted to passing off. The Allegations Para 24 of the particulars of claim alleged: "From a precise date unknown to the Claimants but before the issue of the Claim Form herein and believed to have been from around the se...

Jane Lambert Chancery Division (HH Judge Hacon)  Fromageries Bel SA v J Sainsbury Plc [2019] EWHC 3454 (Ch) (12 Dec 2019) This was an appeal against Mr Allan James's decision  of 13 Feb 2019 that the registration of the above 3-dimensional sign under trade mark number UK2060882  was invalid. The hearing officer held that 'the colour red' in the description of the mark was insufficiently clear or precise and that a particular hue of red should have been specified. The proprietor's grounds of appeal were as follows: "(1) The Hearing Officer erred in applying the Sieckmann criteria to a mark that is not a colour mark per se. (2) The Hearing Officer erred in failing to interpret the registration as being limited to the red colour shown in the pictorial representation of the registered mark. (3) Alternatively, if the Sieckmann criteria apply to a mark that is not a colour mark per se and if the registration was not already limited, then the...