High Court: Intellectual Property Enterprise Court judgments, 2017

UK unregistered design right requires an original design embodied in the whole or part of an article. A claim cannot concern arbitrarily selected disembodied…

In the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court, a successful claimant’s Part 36 offer may override the usual capped-costs regime. The court should generally…

In passing off, liability for a misrepresentation published through a third-party medium depends on who directly controlled the act creating it, subject to…

A company cannot acquire primary liability for passing off merely because it has the same controlling mind as a company that committed the tort. Liability…

In an account of profits for patent infringement, deductible costs are identified by practical substance rather than pedantic categorisation. Costs supporting…

Joint authorship requires collaboration in the creation of the specific copyright work. Collaboration requires a common design and cooperative acts which lead…

For summary judgment, the court may determine a short point of law or construction where it has the evidence needed for a proper decision. An implied copyright…

A court may vary an earlier order where it has jurisdiction to do so, exercising a broad discretion consistently with the overriding objective. A contempt…

Permission to appeal requires a real prospect of success or another compelling reason. A disagreement with factual findings, without an identified error of…

In construing an informally drafted commercial agreement, the court must identify what a reasonable person with the relevant background knowledge would…

An appellate court should interfere with a specialist first-instance decision only where there is a distinct and material error of principle. The assessment is…

Infringement under Trade Marks Act 1994, section 10(2), depends on the global assessment of the relevant circumstances. Identity of services, visual, aural and…

Transfer from the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court is governed by access to justice, the parties’ resources, the value and complexity of the claim, and…

When assessing whether a geographical name is inherently descriptive, the tribunal must consider the perception of the relevant average consumer and disregard…

Use of an online product listing may constitute trade mark use where the listing presents the goods as being supplied or manufactured by the trade mark…

An amendment to a patent specification is impermissible if it discloses matter additional to the application as filed. Patent claims must be construed…

Under Misrepresentation Act 1967, s.2(1), a claimant succeeds where it entered a contract after a misrepresentation, relied on it, suffered loss as a result…

In an account of profits for patent infringement, the claimant recovers profits derived from exploitation of the inventive concept, viewed through the…

A general civil restraint order may be granted where a litigant persists in issuing claims or making applications that are totally without merit, and an…

For infringement under Trade Marks Act 1994, section 10(3), or Article 9(2)(c) of the applicable EU trade mark Regulation, every statutory element must be…

An invention producing an aesthetic effect is not necessarily an aesthetic creation as such. The relevant question is whether, in substance, the claimed…

Copyright infringement requires objective similarity and a causal connection showing that the defendant copied the copyright work. Copyright protects original…

In construing a written contract, the court identifies the meaning a reasonable person with the parties’ relevant background knowledge would have understood…

Patent claims are construed through the eyes of the person skilled in the art, using the language of the patent as a whole. A claim is not rendered…

For novelty, a claim is construed by asking what the skilled person would understand the words or numerical limits to mean. A prior disclosure of overlapping…

A judge sharing chambers with counsel does not, without more, create apparent bias. The question is whether a fair-minded and informed observer, aware of…

When confidential material is relevant to a potential counterclaim or to a prospective party’s decision whether to participate in proceedings, the court must…

On summary judgment, the court asks whether the claim or defence has a realistic prospect of success. It must avoid a mini-trial, but may decide a short legal…