LATEST IP&T

Latest IP&T

The August/September issue of Butterworths' Intellectual Property and Technology Cases has now been published. It contains just two cases but, says the IPKat, one is very fat and the other is very important.

The fat one is actually two cases: Nova Productions Ltd v Mazooma Games and Nova Productions Ltd v Bell-Fruit Games Ltd. Both involve complex issues concerning the alleged infringement of copyright in programs for computer games (see the IPKat's note on the decisions here). The trial judge, Mr Justice Kitchin, did an extremely good job of filleting some red herrings and, in focusing clearly on the significant issues, dismissed Nova's action as being without foundation. The Court of Appeal has refused to agree to a reference to the European Court of Justice since, whatever the ECJ ruled on the law, Nova would still lose on the facts.

The second case is Sportswear v Stonestyle, where the Court of Appeal took it upon itself to put the interests of justice ahead of those of the STONE ISLAND trade mark owner, refusing to allow summary judgment on the trade mark infringement issue where the defendant wanted to allege infractions of competition law on the part of the proprietor. See the IPKat's earlier comment here.