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Recent cases

Swatch AG v Apple Inc29 March 2021Charlotte May QC and Jaani Riordan represented Apple in an appeal by Swatch concerning its trade mark applications for the signs “Swatch One More Thing” and “One More Thing”. Apple had shown that the phrase “One more thing” had become associated with Apple by virtue of the use of the phrase, primarily by Steve Jobs, […]
TuneIn Inc v Warner Music UK Ltd and Sony Music Entertainment UK Ltd26 March 2021Jaani Riordan acted as junior counsel for TuneIn in an appeal raising significant issues of copyright law, in particular as to the scope of the right of communication to the public under section 20 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. TuneIn operates an online platform allowing users to listen to audio streams of […]
Vestel v Access Advance & Philips26 March 2021Mark Chacksfield QC and Henry Edwards acted for the appellant claimants, Vestel, in this appeal against the order of HHJ Hacon setting aside service of the claim form out of the jurisdiction and declaring that the court had no jurisdiction to hear the claim. The subject matter of the action concerned the High Efficiency Video […]
Kwikbolt Ltd v Airbus Operations Ltd25 March 2021Henry Ward appeared for the successful Defendant, Airbus, in this patent infringement and invalidity action. Kwikbolt alleged that the use by Airbus of a product called the Centrix Free Spin Fastener in the assembly of aircraft wings at Broughton in North Wales infringed Kwikbolt’s patent for a “removeable blind fastener”.  Airbus counterclaimed alleging that the […]
Lifestyle Equities v Amazon23 March 2021Daniel Alexander QC and Max Keay appeared for the defendants, Amazon, in the hearing of consequential matters arising out of the trial judgment in this trade mark dispute.  With the exception of admitted historical infringements, the claimants’ claims for trade mark infringement were dismissed.  In particular, it had been held that Amazon had not used […]
HRH The Duchess of Sussex v Associated Newspapers Limited22 March 2021Two consequential judgments have been handed down following the recent summary judgment application made by HRH The Duchess of Sussex against Associated Newspapers on issues within her claim for copyright infringement. The proceedings had concerned the publication by the Defendant in the Mail on Sunday and MailOnline of extracts of a handwritten letter sent by […]
Facebook Ireland Ltd v Voxer IP LLC 19 March 2021Jaani Riordan represented Facebook in this pre-trial review which raised an important point of patent pleading practice. The patentee, Voxer, sought to introduce an infringement case based on the doctrine of equivalents, relying on Actavis v Eli Lilly [2017] UKSC 48.  The issue for the court was whether such a case needed to be pleaded […]
Michael Penhallurick v MD5 Limited15 February 2021Michael Conway acted for the defendant, MD5 Limited, in this claim for copyright infringement. Mr Penhallurick was a former employee of MD5. He claimed ownership of copyright in eight works relating to the source code and a user guide for a computer programme called “Virtual Forensic Computing” (VFC).  MD5 Limited is his former employer. The […]
HRH The Duchess of Sussex v Associated Newspapers Limited11 February 2021Jessie Bowhill acted in the counsel team for HRH The Duchess of Sussex in her application for summary judgment.  Adrian Speck QC and Isabel Jamal acted in the counsel team for Associated Newspapers Limited resisting the application. The proceedings concern the publication by the Defendant in the Mail on Sunday and MailOnline of extracts of […]
Software Solutions v 365 Health9 February 2021Jaani Riordan acted for the Claimants in a software copyright dispute involving mental health applications created using the Claimants’ multimedia software authoring tool. The judgment offers a detailed examination of the rights subsisting in XML files and data formats, and the principles applicable to software licences and assignments. The Defendants claimed to have acquired the […]