High Court: Intellectual Property Enterprise Court judgments, 2024

Genuine use of a trade mark is not determined by sales volume alone. Even relatively small-scale use may suffice where it represents real commercial…

In the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court, a post-case-management amendment will generally be allowed where it enables the real dispute to be tried, but…

Registered design infringement is assessed by comparing the overall impressions of the registered and accused designs on the informed user, while disregarding…

Goodwill may arise in a trading sign where it is used in trade as an indication of source, even if another sign is used alongside it. Goodwill generated by an…

Applications to strike out or obtain summary judgment should be determined without a mini-trial. The court must assess whether the claim has a realistic…

For copyright protection of applied art under the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988, originality under the InfoSoc Directive operates as a gateway. The…

A defendant does not submit to the jurisdiction merely by applying for a declaration that service was invalid, where the application challenges the court’s…

Copyright protection for a product is not established merely because the product is attractive, commercially successful or designed for a specialist market.…

Trade mark rights are exhausted after genuine goods are placed on the market, but the proprietor may oppose later dealings where, on the facts as a whole…

Words commonly used in the software industry to describe tools for creating applications are descriptive and may lack distinctive character, even when…

A case-management stay should be granted only where it best advances the overriding objective, having regard to the particular procedural circumstances and the…

A family of trade marks requires a common distinctive element used in a series. A merely common letter, or a business name absent from the challenged signs, is…

On an application for an interim patent injunction, the court must address the American Cyanamid stages in sequence. It should not assume that damages are…

In IPEC proceedings, witness evidence should be limited to material linked to identified trial issues, admissible, and justified by the costs benefit test. A…

For service out of the jurisdiction under CPR 6.33(2B)(b), the claimant must establish a good arguable case that the relevant jurisdictional gateway applies.…

Permission to amend a pleading depends on the overriding objective and the need to conduct litigation fairly, justly and at proportionate cost. A proposed…

Interest awarded under Civil Procedure Rules 1998, rule 36.17(3), does not override the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court stage and overall costs caps.…

An application to join additional parties to a counterclaim requires a discretionary assessment of both merits and case management. The proposed claim must…

Summary judgment in a patent case may be appropriate where the relevant claim language has an ordinary meaning and the issue does not require expert evidence.…

For trade mark infringement, the sign and mark must be compared as identified in the pleadings, and the sign must be assessed in its real commercial context.…

Relief from sanctions may be granted where alleged witness-statement defects are substantively cured, cause no real prejudice, and do not prevent the parties…