Mattel Inc. and J W Spear and Sons Limited v Zynga Inc. [2015] EWCA Civ 290

This was the appeal from the judgment of Peter Smith J ([2013] EWHC 3348 (Ch)) in which he dismissed Mattel’s claims for infringement of its registered trade marks SCRABBLE and SCRAMBLE by an electronic word game app called SCRAMBLE With Friends and modelled on the gameplay of the well-known game Boggle.  The trial judge held that the SCRABBLE mark was not infringed (save in one insignificant case) and that the SCRAMBLE mark was invalid but would have been infringed had it been valid.  The Court of Appeal reversed the judge’s finding on the validity of the SCRAMBLE registration and held that it was infringed.  The Court also reviewed entirely the judge’s consideration of infringement of the SCRABBLE mark holding that he had applied the wrong approach to the assessment of the likelihood of confusion.  It nevertheless upheld that finding on different grounds.  It also reversed his finding that a particular form of the SCRAMBLE sign as used by Zynga infringed the SCRABBLE registration. 

Michael Silverleaf appeared for the successful appellants. 

[2015] EWCA Civ 290

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