Dyson Sucks Upward Unlicensed Copyist
In the High Court's Chancery Division end Tuesday, inward Dyson Ltd v Qualtex (UK) Ltd [2004] EWHC 2981 (Ch), Mr Justice Isle of Mann handed Dyson a welcome victory in its battle against unlicensed spare parts sellers. Dyson made vacuum cleaners; Qualtex supplied spare parts for domestic appliances that were duplicates of the master copy parts. Dyson sued, alleging infringement of unregistered pattern correct inward a position out of vacuum cleaner spare parts including wand handles, cable winders as well as brush bars. It was accepted that parts of each of those designs was covered past times the ‘must fit’ as well as ‘must match’ exceptions educate out inward s.213(3) of the Copyright, Designs as well as Patents Act 1988, but Dyson maintained that bits of pattern for each production did non autumn inside either of those exceptions. Qualtex admitted that all the parts were copied but argued that (i) many of the relevant designs had been copied from elsewhere, (ii) the ‘must fit’ ...