Waterford Wedgwood Plc and Another v David Vagli Ltd and Another, Haughton Third Party: ChD 13 May 1998

The sellers had supplied counterfeit Waterford crystal to a buyer in New York, arranging for the goods to be shipped from Ireland to Spain and then from Spain to Felixstowe, where they were transhipped and sent to New York. The question was whether the sellers had infringed the Waterford trade mark in the United Kingdom by importing the goods into Felixstowe, and whether the English court had jurisdiction.
Held: The defendant had imported the goods into the United Kingdom. The buyer had not imported them into the United Kingdom. He had imported them into New York. The passage of the goods through Felixstowe was entirely the act of the seller and he was therefore the importer in relation to the United Kingdom. A third party claim by defendant against person domiciled in a convention country did not just because of that fall within the convention though satisfied Order 16 requirement as ‘any other third party proceedings.’

Judges:

Sir Richard Scott V-C

Citations:

Times 13-May-1998, [1998] FSR 92

Statutes:

Brussels Convention on Jurisdiction and the Enforcement of Judgments in Civil and Commercial Matters 1968

Jurisdiction:

England and Wales

Cited by:

CitedSABAF Spa (A Company Incorporated Under the Laws of Italy) v MFI Furniture Centres Limited and others; Sabaf Spa (A Company Incorporated Under the Laws of Italy) v MFI Furniture Centres Limited and others HL 14-Oct-2004
The patent holder had complained of imports of infringing items by the respondent, who in turn challenged the patent for obviousness. The Court of Appeal had rejected the rule of colocation as inconsistent with the test in Windsurfing.
Held: . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.

Jurisdiction, Intellectual Property

Updated: 09 February 2022; Ref: scu.90316