Deputy High Court Judge David Stone has ruled that the the question of whether a WaterRower water resistance rowing machine (pictured) is a work of artistic craftsmanship is one that requires a full trial and cannot be determined in summary judgment. In his judgment on 5 August 2022, he rejected an application for strike out /summary judgment of a copyright infringement claim (WaterRower (UK) Ltd v Liking Ltd (T/A Topiom)). The claimant sells the WaterRower, which was designe

Lidl has won the first skirmish in its trade mark infringement case against Tesco concerning the latter’s use of a yellow circle on a blue background. In a judgment on 13 June 2022, Mrs Justice Joanna Smith DBE granted Lidl’s application to strike out Tesco’s counterclaim which had alleged that some of Lidl’s marks should be declared invalid on ground of bad faith. She also granted Lidl permission to rely on its survey evidence at trial. The case is now set to go to a full tr

What connects Leonardo Da Vinci, a Christmas miracle and the possible award of exemplary damages? The answer lies in a recent High Court judgment by Mr Justice Jacobs (Salt Ship Design AS v Prysmian Powerlink SRL). The case concerned designs for a cable lay vessel produced by Salt Ship Design for Prysmian. The judge found that Prysmian (a company with annual revenue of €10 billion) had made the designs available to another designer, Vard Design AS, which was associated with t

When can component parts of a product be protected as unregistered Community designs (UCDs)? The Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) recently answered that question in a case concerning design rights in a Ferrari car (Case C-123/20). The case, which was before the German Federal Court of Justice (BGH) related to the Ferrari FXX K model, presented to the public in December 2014 (pictured). Ferrari alleged that Mansory Design (and Mansory’s CEO) infringed its UCDs by marketing ki

easyGroup, which owns the IP rights for companies such as easyJet and easyHotel, has been active, and largely successful, in bringing actions against other companies using the “easy” prefix. However, it suffered a reverse in a recent judgment against an online retailer, easylife (Easygroup Ltd v Easylife Ltd & Anor [2021] EWHC 2150 (Ch)). Chief Insolvency and Companies Court Judge Briggs dismissed easyGroup’s infringement and passing off claims against easylife. An important