NIPC Law

  Jane Lambert Chancery Division (Mr Justice Rajah)   Illiquidx Ltd v Altana Wealth Ltd and others [2025] EWHC 299 (Ch) (13 Feb 2025) This was a claim for breach of contract and confidence and trade secrets and copyright infringement,    The Parties The claimant was Illiquidx Ltd, ("IX")  a company that describes itself as "an innovative independent financial services boutique specialised in illiquid markets, which caters to institutional, professional and high net worth investors."  Its activities focus on sales, trading and advice,  One of the markets in which it claims expertise is the sovereign debt of Venezuela , a country that has laboured under international sanctions for many years and has recently defaulted on its debt. The first and second defendants are Altana Wealth Ltd ("Altana") and Lee Robinson ("Mr Robinson") Altana's founder, controlling shareholder and chief investment officer. According to its website, Altana seeks uni...

Manchester Civil Justice Centre Author Skip88  Licence Public Domain Source Wikimedia Commons Jane Lambert Court of Appeal (Lords Justices Lewison, Phillips and Snowdon) Cheshire Estate & Legal Ltd. v Blanchfield and others [2024] EWCA Civ 1317 (5 Nov 2024) This was an appeal from the judgment of His Honour Judge Bever sitting in Manchester as a judge of the High Court. The learned judge had dismissed with costs a claim by Cheshire Estate & Legal Ltd. ("Cheshire Estate") against two of its former directors and the company that they were setting up for conspiracy and breach of fiduciary, contractual and confidential duties. The Alleged Wrongdoing The defendants were accused of taking preliminary steps to set up a competing enterprise before they had resigned as Cheshire Estate's directors. Those steps included registering the trading name of the new business, incorporating the company as the corporate vehicle for their venture, appointing themselves as directors ...

Author  Basher  Eyre  Licence  CC BY-SA 2.0   Source  Wikimedia Commons   Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (HH Judge Melissa Clarke) PSN Recruitments Ltd  v Ludley and another [2023] EWHC 3153 (IPEC) (8 Dec 2023) This was a claim by PSN Recruitment Ltd (trading as Cosmopolitan Recruitment ("Cosmopolitan") against its former employee, Graeme Ludley ("Mr Ludley").   Mr Ludley had emailed to himself particulars of Cosmopolitan's clients. set up a Greenscape Specialist Recruitment Ltd ("Greenscape") as a competing business and told Cosmopolitan's clients that he was still working for the same employer but from a different location and under a different corporate name.  Cosmopolitan sued Mr Ludley and the company for breach of confidence and passing off  in the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court ("IPEC") . Their defence to the breach of confidence claim was that the information was easily obtainable from trade publicatio...

Author Rob Farrow   Licence CC BY-SA 2.0 Deed   Source Wikimedia Commons Jane Lambert Business and Property Courts, Intellectual Property (Chancery) Mr Justice Zacaroli PG Systems Europe Ltd. and another v Aughton and another   [2023] EWHC 581 (22 March 2023) This was an action for copyright infringement and breach of confidence. It was brought by a software house against its former director and programmer. The claimants were a US company called Productivity-Quality Systems, Inc. ("PQS") and an English company called PQ Systems Europe Ltd. ("PQE").  The transcript refers to them collectively as "PQ".  PQE was not a subsidiary of PQS but it was founded, owned and run by the same person. When that founder died both companies passed into the hands of his successor.    The first defendant, Jeff Aughton ("Mr Aughton"), worked for PQE from 1989 to 2015  On leaving that company, Mr Aughton developed software packages that were similar to PQE's....

  Jane Lambert Patents Court  (HH Judge Hacon)  Autostore Technology AS v Ocado Group Plc and others [2023] EWHC 716 (Pat) (30 March 2023) This was a patent infringement action.  The claimant, AutoStore Technology AS ("AutoStore"), complained that the defendants had infringed two of its European patents.  The defendants denied infringement and challenged the validity of the patents on grounds of anticipation and obviousness .  They also sought declarations of non-infringement.  The claim and counterclaim came on for trial before His Honour Judge Hacon in March and April 2022.   He handed down judgment on 30 March 2023 (see AutoStore Technology AS v Ocado Group Plc and others [2023] EWHC 716 (Pat)). The Issues The anticipation challenge turned on whether disclosures of the invention to a prospective customer before the priority date in an email and at a presentation in Norway had been made in confidence. That in turn depended on whether Nor...