Cartier International AG & Ors v British Sky Broadcasting Ltd & Ors
2014
CHANCERY DIVISION
United Kingdom
CORAM
- THE HON MR JUSTICE ARNOLD
Areas of Law
- Intellectual Property Law
2014
CHANCERY DIVISION
United Kingdom
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
On 17 October 2014, MR JUSTICE ARNOLD ruled in favor of Richemont, ordering ISPs to block Target Websites engaged in unlawful activities. Subsequent hearings addressed the precise form of the order, upholding Richemont's enforcement method for future notifications involving IP address changes.
The Claimants ( collectively, “Richemont”) are the owners of a large number of United Kingdom Registered Trade Marks for CARTIER, MONTBLANC, IWC and other brands (“the Trade Marks”). The Defendants (“Sky”, “BT”, “EE”, “TalkTalk” and “Virgin”, collectively “the ISPs”) are the five main retail internet service providers in the United Kingdom. Between them, they have a market share of some 95% of UK broadband users. By this application Richemont seek orders requiring the ISPs to block, or at least impede, access by their respective subscribers to six websites which advertise and sell counterfeit goods (“the Target Websites”). Richemont contend that the operators of the Target Websites thereby infringe the Trade Marks. For the avoidance of doubt, there is no suggestion that the ISPs have infringed the Trade Marks or are liable for infringements by the operators of the Target Websites.
The application raises five main questions. First, does this Court have jurisdiction to make an order of the kind sought? Secondly, if the Court has jurisdiction, what are the threshold conditions, if any, which must be satisfied if the Court is to make an order? Thirdly, are those conditions satisfied in the present case? Fourthly, if those conditions are satisfied, what are the principles to be applied in deciding whether or not to make such an order? Fifthly, applying those principles, should such orders be made in the present case?
Over the last three years, a series of orders have been made requiring the ISPs to block, or at least impede, access to websites pursuant to section 97A of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (“ the 1988 Act ”), which implements Article 8(3) of European Parliament and Council Directive 2001/29/EC of 22 May 2001 on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society (“the Information Society Directive”). I have considered the principles to be applied to applications of that kind in a series of judgments: Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp v British Telecommunications plc [2011] EWHC 1981 (Ch) , [2012] Bus LR 1471 (“ 20C Fox v BT ”); Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp v British
Telecommunications plc (No 2) 20C Fox v BT (No 2) [2011] EWHC 2714 (Ch) , [2012] Bus LR 1525 (“ ”); Dramatico Entertainment Ltd v British Sky Broadcasting Ltd Dramatico v Sky [2012] EWHC 268 (Ch) , [2012] 3 CMLR 14 (“ ”); Dramatico Entertainment Ltd v British Sky Broadcasting Ltd (No 2) [2012] EWHC 1152 (Ch) ,
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