High Court: Intellectual Property Enterprise Court judgments, 2022

Contractual construction begins with the language chosen by the parties, read in its documentary, factual and commercial context. Commercial common sense…

On an application to strike out or obtain summary judgment, the court should not finally determine a developing or fact-sensitive question of copyright law…

Joint authorship requires collaboration pursuant to a common design, together with authorial and non-distinct contributions. Mere editorial suggestions or…

Goodwill in a band name belongs to the undertaking that carries on the relevant trade, although individual musicians may acquire concurrent goodwill where they…

In IPEC proceedings, the general rule is that costs of an application made during the proceedings are reserved until trial under CPR 63.26(1). That rule…

Patent infringement is assessed first by the normal, purposive construction of the claims and then, where necessary, by equivalence. A feature which is merely…

A television script intended primarily for performance is a dramatic work. A fictional character may separately qualify for copyright protection where it is an…

An election between an account of profits and an inquiry as to damages is ordinarily final. The court may permit re-election only where, having regard to…

For trade mark infringement, damages for moral prejudice under regulation 3 of the Intellectual Property (Enforcement, etc.) Regulations 2006 compensate…

A party subject to a court order must comply with it unless it successfully appeals or obtains an order setting it aside or varying it. Compliance is not…

On an application for summary judgment, the court must decide whether the claim or defence has a realistic, rather than fanciful, prospect of success. It must…

An embargo on a draft judgment is a court order. Disclosure is permitted only for the legitimate purposes of correcting errors, preparing submissions, agreeing…

A master franchisor is not jointly liable for a franchisee’s trade mark infringement merely because the franchise agreement gives it an option to approve…

Goodwill in a trading name owned by a partnership remains partnership property after the partnership dissolves. A former member cannot acquire that goodwill…

In a registered trade mark infringement claim, the proprietor must prove genuine use sufficient to define a fair specification where non-use is relied upon as…

For trade mark infringement, a common descriptive element does not automatically prevent confusion. The court must assess the marks globally, through the eyes…

UK unregistered design right protects a design that is original and not commonplace in the relevant design field. The commonplace exclusion is applied…

An account of profits aims to identify and transfer the defendant’s actual profit from infringement. The court does not substitute a hypothetical profit.…

Under the Patents Act 1977, the right to apply for a patent is a proprietary right. It falls within section 30(6)(a) and may be assigned only in writing. An…

A post-trial patent amendment which introduces a substantially new claim, likely to require a further validity trial, will generally be refused where the…

On an application for summary judgment in a trade mark infringement claim, the court must ask whether the opposing party has a real prospect of successfully…

For s.10(2) of the Trade Marks Act 1994, the comparison is between the particular use of the allegedly infringing sign and the registered mark considered…

An allegation that documents are forgeries is adequately pleaded where the case is that they were created after their apparent dates and supporting…

A registered design is invalid for lack of individual character where earlier publicly available material produces the same overall impression on the informed…

For trade mark infringement under section 10(2) of the Trade Marks Act 1994, confusion requires more than the sign merely bringing the earlier mark to mind.…

Permission to amend a statement of case should be granted where the proposed amendment has a real, rather than merely fanciful, prospect of success and its…

A trial witness statement under Practice Direction 57AC must contain relevant evidence of disputed facts which the witness could properly give orally. It may…