NIPC Law

Crying mask Melpomene and laughing mask Thalia Author Tim Green   Licence CC BY-SA 2.0   Source Wikimedia Commons   Jane Lambert Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (Recorder Amanda Michaels) Rinkoff v Baby Cow Productions Ltd [2025] EWHC 39 (IPEC) (17 Jan 2025) This was a claim for copyright infringement. The work in which copyright was alleged to subsist as an original dramatic work was the format of two series of comedy shows called "Shambles ". The individual who devised that format was the writer and comedian Joshua Rinkoff ("Mr Rinkoff") who performs under the name  Harry Deansway.   Mr Rinkoff alleged that Baby Cow Productions Ltd . ("Baby Cow") had copied his format to make a series called "Live at the Moth Club".  The action came on for trial before Recorder Amanda Michaels on 4 and 5 Nov 2024.  By her judgment of 17 Jan 2025, the recorder dismissed Mr Rinkoff's claim (see Rinkoff v Baby Cow Productions Ltd [2025] EWHC 39 (IP...

  Jane Lambert Intellectual Property Enterprise Cour t (Mr Campbell Forsyth) WaterRower (UK) Ltd v Liking Ltd . [2024] EWHC 2806 (IPEC) At the case management conference in WaterRower (UK) Ltd v Liking Ltd (T/A Topiom) [2022] EWHC 2084 (IPEC) (5 Aug 2022), Liking Ltd ("Liking") applied unsuccessfully to strike out or obtain summary judgment in, a claim against it by WaterRower (UK) Ltd.  ("WaterRower") for infringement of copyright in several of its water resistance rowing machines ("the Works"). WaterRower had alleged that the Works were "works of artistic craftsmanship" within the meaning of s. 4 (1) (c) of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 ("CDPA").  Mr David Stone, who heard the application, said: "I have found that the Claimant’s case that the WaterRower is a work of artistic craftsmanship is not 'bound to fail'. I have not reached a concluded view that the WaterRower is a work of artistic craftsmanship -...

Jane Lambert Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (Mr Nicholas Caddick KC)  AGA Rangemaster Group Ltd v UK Innovations Group Ltd and another [2024] EWHC 1727 (IPEC) (8 July 2024) UK Innovations Group Ltd . ("UKIG") describes itself on its website as "a progressive, dynamic, energetic, obsessive and innovative business turning the heat storage range cooker concept on its head.". It has developed an electronic control ("eControl") system which it installs in heat storage range cookers known as "Stone Cookers ". However, its eControl systems can also be fitted to AGA cookers that have been converted from fossil fuel heat sources to electricity.  UKIG has converted 26 second-hand AGA cookers to electric power with eControl systems and offered them for sale under both AGA and eControl branding as in the photos above.  AGA Rangemaster Group Ltd ("ARG")  objects to UKIG's marketing and has brought trade mark and copyright infringement pr...