High Court: Intellectual Property Enterprise Court judgments, 2015

A local goodwill established before registration of a trade mark may constitute an earlier right capable of defending use in that locality and, on the approach…

For sound recordings, authorship under section 9(2) of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 is a question of fact. The person who commissions or…

A government department or executive agency may possess goodwill capable of protection by passing off. Misrepresentation that a private renewal service is, or…

A licence to use a trade name, logo and copyright photograph may be construed broadly where the parties’ relationship and dealings show that the rights-holder…

Copyright infringement requires copying of the copyright work or a substantial part of it. Similarity and access may establish a prima facie inference of…

For patent construction, the court must determine the correct meaning of the claims, even where the precise construction was not pleaded, subject to prejudice…

An extended civil restraint order requires persistent issue of claims or applications that are totally without merit. Three such claims or applications are the…

The abbreviation “OCN”, standing alone, was descriptive of a type of educational organisation. It could not distinguish a particular undertaking or support…

A first-instance court may reconsider a judgment after it has been handed down, at least before the order is drawn up. The overriding objective governs the…

Copyright damages assessed on the user principle begin with the sum the parties would reasonably have agreed for a licence, having regard to the realistic…

Where a designer is commissioned to create a logo for a client, the contract will ordinarily be construed as giving the client ownership of the copyright or…

A trade mark is descriptive where the average consumer immediately recognises it as designating a characteristic of the goods or services. A performer’s name…

For inventive-step analysis, the skilled person is identified by reference to the technical field and practical use of the invention. The court may define the…

Genuine use of a Community trade mark is assessed globally, having regard to all relevant circumstances. Territorial borders are disregarded, but use will…

A settlement will not be set aside as an unconscionable bargain merely because it is hard, unequal or objectively unreasonable. The claimant must show…

On an account of profits following passing off, a jointly liable party must account for profits earned from supplying goods pursuant to the common design, even…

In an inquiry as to damages for design infringement, lost sales must be established by a counterfactual assessment of the sales the claimant would probably…

A later claim concerning articles omitted from earlier patent proceedings is not automatically an abuse merely because it could have been brought earlier. The…

Copyright infringement may be inferred from striking similarities between the claimant’s work and the defendant’s design. The stronger the prima facie…

A patent claim requiring an adhesive to self-seal irreversibly is assessed by asking whether, after limited attempts to disguise unauthorised opening, the…

Joint tortfeasance requires more than knowingly facilitating another’s infringement. The alleged joint tortfeasor must actively co-operate in bringing about…

In IPEC proceedings, costs awarded for unreasonable behaviour under CPR 63.26(2) remain subject to the stage caps in Practice Direction 45. CPR 45.32 places…

Costs remain in the court’s discretion, but that discretion must be exercised consistently with the CPR and the circumstances of the case. A withdrawn Part 36…