High Court: Intellectual Property Enterprise Court judgments, 2020

A product may be a garment hanger if it is suitable for hanging garments. It need not be optimal, commercially attractive, or designed for retail use, and its…

In Community design cases, the court must interpret the registration from the images themselves and compare the overall impressions produced on the informed…

Under section 9 of the Arbitration Act 1996, a stay may be sought by a party to an arbitration agreement even where the claimant is not an original signatory.…

Patent claims should be construed in the context of the specification as a whole. An “element” need not be a wholly separate piece of material where the…

A patent claim must be construed purposively, but the court cannot add limitations or extend the monopoly beyond the language of the claim and the contribution…

General opinions about historical or academic marginalisation do not ordinarily have the necessary quality of confidence to support a breach of confidence…

A concluded settlement prevents a party from pursuing later proceedings arising from the same complaint. The rule against successive actions cannot be evaded…

Use of a trade mark to advertise genuine goods is not ordinarily infringement merely because the reseller also offers competing goods. The exhaustion defence…

In a civil claim, the claimant must prove infringement and breach of contract on the balance of probabilities. Copying and storing copyright works for…

Bad faith in applying for a trade mark requires conduct falling short of the standards of acceptable commercial behaviour, assessed on the applicant’s…

A sign may infringe under section 10(2) where the goods or services are identical or similar, the marks have sufficient overall similarity, and the global…

Final invalidation proceedings before the UKIPO may give rise to issue estoppel where the relevant issues were fully litigated, finally determined and not…

Summary judgment may be granted where a defence has no realistic prospect of success, provided the court avoids conducting a mini-trial. In trade mark…

For trade mark infringement, similarity and likelihood of confusion must be assessed globally, through the eyes of the average consumer and in the context of…

An employee’s implied duty of fidelity includes an obligation not to misuse confidential employer information during employment. That duty ends when employment…

Copyright protects the author’s original expression, including an original selection, arrangement or compilation of research material, but not ideas, themes…

A fabric may qualify as a work of artistic craftsmanship even where it is made using a machine and subsequently mass-produced. The relevant questions are…