Judgement handed down today!
The Court of Appeal has today clarified an important aspect of trade mark law in the latest round of Lidl v Tesco.
Tesco has been permitted to continue to argue at trial that a wordless version of Lidl’s logo was periodically filed and refiled by Lidl in bad faith; overturning the High Court decision, which had previously disallowed Tesco’s allegations of bad faith.
For the second time in just over a year, the Court of Appeal have analysed what amounts to a trade mark application made in “bad faith” under s3(6) of the Trade Marks Act 1994.
Simon Malynicz was instructed by Haseltine Lake Kempner and acted for Tesco in its successful appeal against Lidl, arguing that that the latter’s trade marks were arguably “defensive registrations” applied for to extend protection illegitimately rather than to be used as real trade marks. The matter now proceeds to trial in February 2023.
With Last year’s SkyKick judgment of the Court of Appeal itself now headed to the Supreme Court in June 2023, next year looks to be an important one in the development of trade marks law. Simon Malynicz KC is representing Skykick in its appeal.
