BAILII is celebrating 24 years of free online access to the law! Would you consider making a contribution?
No donation is too small. If every visitor before 31 December gives just £1, it will have a significant impact on BAILII's ability to continue providing free access to the law.
Thank you very much for your support!
[Home] [Databases] [World Law] [Multidatabase Search] [Help] [Feedback] | ||
United Kingdom Supreme Court |
||
You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> United Kingdom Supreme Court >> Starbucks (HK) Ltd & Anor v British Sky Broadcasting Group PLC & Ors (Rev 1) [2015] UKSC 31 (13 May 2015) URL: http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKSC/2015/31.html Cite as: [2015] ECC 19, [2015] WLR 2628, [2015] FSR 29, [2015] 3 All ER 469, [2015] WLR(D) 229, [2015] ETMR 31, [2015] UKSC 31, [2015] 1 WLR 2628 |
[New search] [Printable PDF version] [Buy ICLR report: [2015] 1 WLR 2628] [View ICLR summary: [2015] WLR(D) 229] [Help]
Easter Term
[2015] UKSC 31
On appeal from: [2013] EWCA Civ 1465
Starbucks (HK) Limited and another (Appellants) v British Sky Broadcasting Group PLC and others (Respondents)
before
Lord Neuberger, President
Lord Sumption
Lord Carnwath
Lord Toulson
Lord Hodge
JUDGMENT GIVEN ON
Heard on 25 and 26 March 2015
Appellants | Respondents | |
Michael Silverleaf QC Kathryn Pickard (Instructed by Dechert LLP) |
Geoffrey Hobbs QC Iain Purvis QC Guy Hollingworth (Instructed by King and Wood Mallesons LLP) |
LORD NEUBERGER: (with whom Lord Sumption, Lord Carnwath, Lord Toulson and Lord Hodge agree)
The factual background
The instant proceedings
The issue on this appeal
"First, he must establish a goodwill or reputation attached to the goods or services which he supplies in the mind of the purchasing public by association with the identifying 'get-up' (whether it consists simply of a brand name or a trade description, or the individual features of labelling or packaging) under which his particular goods or services are offered to the public, such that the get-up is recognised by the public as distinctive specifically of the plaintiff's goods or services. Secondly, he must demonstrate a misrepresentation by the defendant to the public (whether or not intentional) leading or likely to lead the public to believe that goods or services offered by him are the goods or services of the plaintiff. Whether the public is aware of the plaintiff's identity as the manufacturer or supplier of the goods or services is immaterial, as long as they are identified with a particular source which is in fact the plaintiff. … Thirdly, he must demonstrate that he suffers or … that he is likely to suffer, damage by reason of the erroneous belief engendered by the defendant's misrepresentation that the source of the defendant's goods or services is the same as the source of those offered by the plaintiff."
The House of Lords and Privy Council authorities and Anheuser-Busch
PCCM's case
Discussion
"The reason why goodwill is territorial is that it is a legal proprietary right, existing or not in any jurisdiction according to whether the laws of that jurisdiction protect its putative owner. Goodwill in the legal sense is therefore something more than bare reputation …. The distinction between goodwill in the legal sense and reputation in the everyday sense is like that between copyright and the underlying literary work. It may be surprising, and even inconvenient, that at the moment a literary work is reduced to writing tens or hundreds of legally distinct copyrights may simultaneously come into existence all over the world, but the nature of copyright as a legal right of property arising in any given jurisdiction from national legislation, common law or self-executing treaty means that it must be wrong to speak as if there were a single international copyright."
Conclusion