An action of interdict was raised by the makers of a certain fabric which they had advertised and sold for some years under the name of ‘cellular cloth,’ for the purpose of preventing a rival trader from using the term ‘cellular’ to designate goods not made and sold by the pursuers.
The House of Lords (aff. the judgment of the First Division) refused to grant interdict, in respect that the pursuers had failed to prove (1) that the defenders had, otherwise than by the use of the term ‘cellular,’ done anything to induce the belief that the goods offered by them were goods of the pursuers’ manufacture, or (2) that the term ‘cellular’ had acquired in the trade any technical or secondary meaning different from its ordinary meaning as a term descriptive of the goods, so as to entitle the pursuers to claim its exclusive use.
Judges:
Lord Chancellor (Halsbury), and Lords Watson, Shand, and Davey
Citations:
[1899] UKHL 605, 36 SLR 605
Links:
Jurisdiction:
Scotland
Intellectual Property
Updated: 20 December 2022; Ref: scu.631832