In Noel Redding Estate Ltd & Anor v Sony Music Entertainment UK Ltd [2025] EWCA Civ 66, the Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal against the High Court’s refusal to grant summary judgment or strike out copyright and performers’ rights claims regarding the exploitation of the studio albums of eponymous rock band, the Jimi…
In a recent decision, the UK IPEC has considered whether the format of a comedy show can be protectable as a dramatic work in copyright. The claim was brought by Joshua Rinkoff (the “Claimant”) for copyright infringement of a comedy show he wrote, produced and acted in called “Shambles”. The premise of the show was…
The long-awaited and much anticipated judgment of the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (“IPEC”) in Waterrower (UK) Limited v Liking Limited (t/a TOPIOM) [2024] EWHC 2086 (“WaterRower”) was finally handed down last month. IP practitioners and the wider design community have been eagerly awaiting the decision as it was expected to be the first UK decision…
In Equisafety Ltd v Woof Wear Ltd (Equisaftey) Ian Karat sitting as a Judge in the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (IPEC) rejected the Claimant’s copyright infringement claim in respect of various equestrian garments because the garments did not qualify as works of artistic craftsmanship under s.4 of the Copyright Design and Patents Act 1988 (CDPA). …
In AGA Rangemaster v UK Innovations ([2024] EWHC 1727 (IPEC)), the UK Intellectual Property Enterprise Court has held that AGA’s trade marks were infringed by a company selling refurbished AGA cookers in a certain manner. AGA also relied on copyright in a design drawing of an AGA control panel and claimed copyright infringement by the…
In July 2023, the Court of Appeal in Wright & Ors v BTC Core & Ors [2023] EWCA Civ 868. overturned the High Court decision in which Mr Justice Mellor found that the Bitcoin File Format (the “BFF”) was not a protectable work in a copyright sense as it did not satisfy the fixation requirement…
On 19 March 2024, the Court of Appeal handed down its decision on the appeal in the Lidl v Tesco case ([2024] EWCA Civ 262), holding as follows. First instance (High Court) decision Court of Appeal ruling Copyright infringement Overturned (appeal allowed) Trade mark infringement Upheld (appeal dismissed) Passing off Upheld (appeal dismissed) Trade…
THJ Systems Limited & Anor v Daniel Sheridan & Anor [2023] EWCA Civ 1354 concerned many issues but the one of most interest was the correct legal test to consider whether a copyright work is original. One would think this has been well rehearsed in numerous cases already, but the Court of Appeal decision…
The UK High Court has held that Lidl’s rights in the Lidl logo were infringed by Tesco’s Clubcard Price(s) signs ([2023] EWHC 873 (Ch)). Specifically, the court made the following findings. Trade mark infringement – Lidl’s trade mark for the Lidl logo was infringed by Tesco’s Clubcard Price(s) signs, which took unfair advantage of Lidl’s…
Perhaps it comes as no surprise that a copyright dispute regarding a fire-breathing–sneezing dragon would get so heated. The case of Evans v John Lewis Plc & Anor [2023] EWHC 766 (IPEC) is a copyright infringement claim in which the IPEC (a specialist IP court in the UK) was asked to decide whether John Lewis’s…
