Mr Manuel
10.For the Defendants there was evidence from Mr Manuel, the Third Defendant, who set up all the Corporate Defendants, and from Bish Smeir, a business colleague of Mr Manuel’s and an account holder with Wirex. 11.The bulk of the evidence of use of “cryptoback” by the Defendants was given by Mr Manuel. He explained that in 2015 Bee-One launched a conventional cashback loyalty service linked to credit and debit cards. Consumers could register their existing cards with Bee-One and thereafter purchases attracted loyalty rewards. Alternatively, consumers could obtain a new VISA debit card from Bee-One. In about mid-2016 the management of Bee-One began to plan a similar service using cryptocurrency. Global and the Second Defendant (“Cryptocarbon UK”) were set up as vehicles for the proposed business. A new cryptocurrency, called “CCRB” was launched in the summer of 2016. Mr Manuel says that he came up with the “cryptoback” name in 2017 and that it was launched by Global in November 2017. Global provided a business-tobusiness service to Bee-One which in turn provided the service to its business customers. Global also provided a business-to-consumer service directly to consumers. From June 2018 the business-to-consumer service was in large part transferred to Cryptocarbon UK. 12.Mr Manuel described a variety of uses of “cryptoback” in the UK before the Filing Date in his witness statement. In cross-examination some of this evidence was shown to be unreliable. I will give examples. 13.First, Mr Manuel relied on the sales of gift cards before the Filing Date, saying that there had been over 3000 transactions worth more than £600,000. In cross-examination he conceded, despite giving the figure in sterling, that the Defendants’ documents do not record transactions for UK account holders selecting cryptoback. 14.Secondly, Mr Manuel’s evidence in his witness statement was that in the first three months of 2018 Bee-One paid Global 2% of the transaction value of cryptoback services. He said this showed that Bee-One’s customers had spent £136,000 in services in respect of which they had opted for the service under the cryptoback mark. In cross-examination he was asked for the records supporting this figure. He said that they existed but apparently they were not in the trial bundles. 15.Thirdly, he asserted in his witness statement that by the Filing Date Global’s cryptocurrency cashback service had been provided under the “cryptoback” mark in over 25,000 transactions worth more than £60,000. He was asked in cross-examination where those figures came from and answered that account details had been produced. Neither at that point nor in re-examination did Mr Manuel identify accounts which established the figures he had given. 16.Fourthly, in his witness statement he relied on use of “cryptoback” on the BeeOne app before the Filing Date. No image of the app was included in his evidence. In cross-examination he was evasive about having access to the app as it was before the Filing Date. He was told by Mr Norris that Wirex had found it and that it contained no reference to “cryptoback”. Counsel was there giving evidence, but Mr Manuel did not deny that sight of the Bee-One app as it was before the Filing Date would not have helped the Defendants’ case. 17.Fifthly, Mr Manuel relied on a website now at www.ccrb.io used by Global and Cryptocarbon UK (“the Website”). In his witness statement he said that it was materially the same before the Filing Date as it is now. The Website as it is now was demonstrated in a video prepared by Mr Manuel. In crossexamination Mr Manuel conceded that he could have used the Wayback machine, a digital archive of the internet based in San Francisco, to demonstrate the Website as it was before the Filing Date but had not done so. Yet Mr Manuel was happy to use the Wayback machine for other parts of his evidence. 18.More examples are given below. I am unable to accept any evidence from Mr Manuel concerning use of “cryptoback” by Global before the Filing Date save where it is clearly supported by documentary evidence.