NIPC Law

Author Hugh Venables    Licence CC BY-SA 2. 0   Source Wikimedia Commons   Jane Lambert Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (Mr Tom Mitcheson KC) Edwards v Boohoo.com UK Ltd and other s  [2025] EWHC 805 (IPEC) (3 Apr 202 5) This was an action for unregistered design right infringement. The claimant was Sonia Edwards, a fashion designer who promoted her work on Instagram, Facebook, CwtchyCwtchy, and other websites. CwtchyCwtchy seems to be derived from the Welsh word "cwtch" , which can be translated roughly as "hug". Ms Edwards complained that Boohoo.com UK Limited and its related companies ("Boohoo") infringed design rights in five of her designs by making and selling clothes to those designs. The action was tried by Mr Tom Mitcheson KC sitting as a deputy judge of the High Court on 30 and 31 Jan 2025. He handed down judgment on 3 April 2025. By para [151] of his judgment in Edwards v Boohoo.com UK Ltd and others [2025] EWHC 805 (IPEC) (3 April...

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....

Author Friedrich-Johann-Justin-Bertuch    Jane Lambert Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (HH Judge Melissa Clarke)  Evans v John Lewis Plc and anothe r [2023] EWHC 766 (IPEC) (3 April 2023)    This was another copyright case that turned on whether copying could be proved.  The claimant was the self-published author of a children's book about a young dragon who could not help emitting fire. She claimed that a substantial part of her work had been copied in an advertising film that had been made by the second defendant for the retailer John Lewis Plc at Christmas 2019. That film featured another fire-emitting young dragon and was accompanied by a spin-off children's book called Excitable Edgar .  The claimant sued for copyright infringement. The creators of the film counterclaimed for a declaration of non-infringement and a publicity order.  The action and counterclaim came on for trial before Her Honour Judge Melissa Clarke on 30 and 31 Jan 20...

Author Evan-Amos   Licence Public Domain   Source Wikimedia Commons   Jane Lambert Business and Property Courts , Intellectual Property List (chD) (Mr Justice Zacaroli PQ Systems Europe Ltd and another v Aughton and another [2023] EWHC 581 (Pat) This was an action for copyright infringement and breach of confidence. The claimants were two software houses, one English and the other American, which were at the relevant time owned by the same shareholder.  The English company was PQ Systems Europe Ltd ("PQSE") and the American one was Productivity-Quality Systems Inc.   The first defendant was one Jeff Aughton ("Mr Aughton"). He had been an employee and director of PQSE  The second defendant was a company owned by the first defendant and his wife called Factoria Ltd.  The Claimants' Software The claimants accused Mr Aughton of copying their software.  That software was statistical process control ("SPC") and gauge management software. SPC ...

  Jane Lambert Business and Property Courts, Intellectual Property List (Mr Justice Edward Johnson)  Pasternak v Prescott   [2022] EWHC 2695 (Ch) This was a claim for copyright infringement and a counterclaim for a declaration of non-infringement. The claimant was Anna Pasternak . author of   Lara: The Untold Story That Inspired Doctor Zhivago  (" Lara" )    She   complained that the defendant,  Lara Prescott , had reproduced part of the selection, structure and arrangement of facts and incidents from 7 out of 12 chapters of her book in The Secrets We Kept ("TSWK") .  Ms Paasternak also alleged that Ms Prescott had reproduced a substantial part of a translation of part of  Légendes de la Rue Potapov in which Ms Pasternak had acquired copyright without Ms Pasternak's consent.  The action and counterclaim came on for trial before Mr Justice Edwin Johnson between 8 and 19 July 2022.  The learned judge deliver...