Case No. EWHC-3296-(IPEC)

Nicola Fletcher 9. Equisafety relied on the evidence of Nicola Fletcher, its sole shareholder and director. A number of criticisms were made of her as a witness. One was that she had set out to deceive people by causing Equisafety to make and sell a range of high visibility products using the word “POLITE” in a way that resembled a “POLICE” sign. I reject this criticism. I cannot see that this involves any meaningful deception of anyone or that it is of any relevance to this case. As Ms Fletcher said, such products simply cause drivers to reduce speed – thereby protecting horses, riders and, indeed, drivers and there was no evidence to suggest that the police have any concerns about these products. Another criticism of Ms Fletcher was that she caused Equisafety to apply for a trade mark in respect of goods which it had no intention of selling. I will deal with this when addressing the bad faith issue but I do not see it as a reason to doubt her evidence. Yet another criticism was that Ms Fletcher had written to Battle’s customers asserting that Battle had admitted infringement of the Mercury trade mark when, in fact, it had simply agreed to stop using the Mercury sign without any admission of liability. Whilst I accept Ms Fletcher’s evidence that she had genuinely thought that Battle was admitting liability, it does seem to me that this reflects a tendency in Ms Fletcher to be rather single minded in her views about Equisafety's rights. Despite this, I found her to be a good witness who was seeking to assist the court and who gave clear evidence with regard to matters within her knowledge. However, as will appear, there are occasions where I have felt unable to rely on assertions which she makes but which are unsupported by other evidence. Richard Dewey 10. Mr Dewey gave evidence on behalf of himself and the Defendant. One criticism of his evidence was that he claimed not to have first-hand knowledge of important matters (such as why Battle had adopted the word mercury). I will return to the significance of this later. Another criticism was that his statement contained material (especially as regards the allegation of bad faith) that was more in the nature of submissions drafted by his lawyers than of evidence of facts known to him. Again, I have borne these matters in mind where relevant, but I do not see them as reasons to doubt Mr Dewey’s evidence on matters within his knowledge and I find that he too was an honest witness seeking to assist the court. Ruth Druce and Daniel Roberts 11. The defendants also relied on the evidence of Ruth Druce (Battle’s deputy office manager) and of Daniel Roberts (a digital marketing and e-commerce executive working on Battle’s websites) with regard to steps taken by Battle to cease use of the word Mercury in the light of Ms Fletcher’s complaints. Ms Druce and Mr Roberts were not cross examined and I am happy to accept the contents of their statements.