Magmatic Ltd v PMS International Ltd [2013] EWHC 1925 (Pat)
The maker of the Trunki ride-on suitcase for children brought a claim for infringement of Community Registered Design, UK unregistered design right and copyright against the seller of the Kiddee Case, which is also a ride-on suitcase for children. Arnold J held that the claim succeeded in relation to the Community Registered Design, four of the six pleaded UK unregistered designs and the copyright in the safety notice on the Trunki packaging. The claim failed in relation to two of the six UK unregistered designs relied on and the copyright in the artwork for the Trunki packaging.
The judgment addresses a number of important issues, including the obscure disclosures exception in Art 7(1) of the Community Designs Regulation, whether a prior disclosure forms part of the design corpus and under what circumstances the surface decoration of a product complained of should be taken into account in determining whether it infringes a Community Registered Design. The judgment also considers the extent to which a claimant in a UK unregistered design case is entitled to claim a design covering several embodiments.
Richard Hacon and Chris Aikens appeared for the defendant.