Ashley Wilde Group Ltd v BCPL Ltd [2019] EWHC 3166 (IPEC)
Copyright, subsistence, infringement
Ashley Wilde manufactured and sold, inter alia, bedlinen for the ‘Kylie Minogue At Home’ including a range called Evangeline. BCPL manufactured and sold, inter alia, bedlinen for the ‘By Caprice Home’ brand named after Caprice Bourret, the highly successful model and reality television star. Ashley Wilde owned the copyright in an original artistic work, namely a prototype fabric for use in the Evangeline range, which was created by an employee. Ashley Wilde alleged that the Evangeline duvet cover was widely available in the UK and that BCPL or its designer had access to it and copied it to create the Amore range of bedlinen sold under the ‘By Caprice Home’ brand. BPCL averred that the Amore range was independently designed and so did not infringe. Ashley Wilde instructed an expert to support its allegation of copying.
The claim was dismissed at trial.