Hearst Holdings Inc v A.V.E.L.A Inc, High Court
The High Court has dismissed a claim for a declaration of invalidity of a Betty Boop trade mark based on bad faith and rejected an application to pause English proceedings in favour of Italian proceedings.
In February this year, the High Court decided that a business’s use of Betty Boop imagery for a range of products amounted to passing off and trade mark infringement of a range of trade marks for BETTY BOOP. The same business which was found to have infringed the BETTY BOOP trade mark had also issued two applications: one for a declaration of invalidity of the BETTY BOOP trade mark and another for a stay of proceedings. The High Court rejected both applications.
The High Court concluded that the claim for invalidity failed because the facts did not support the argument that the trade mark owner had no rights in the trade mark when it was registered and therefore the claim for invalidity had no real prospect of success. The application for a stay of proceedings was rejected as being too late in the case. The consequence of this decision to disallow the stay to proceedings could be irreconcilable decisions being made in the Italian and English Courts. Only time will tell.