Case No. IP-2021-000119

The law32.Arnold J said this in Whitby Specialist Vehicles Limited v Yorkshire Specialist Vehicles Limited [2014] EWHC 4242 (Pat):“[24] … I considered the designer's degree of freedom in Dyson Ltd v Vax Ltd [2010] EWHC 1923 (Pat), [2010] FSR 39 at [32]-[37], where I concluded that design freedom may be constrained by (i) the technical function of the product or an element thereof, (ii) the need to incorporate features common to such products and/or (iii) economic considerations. I also concluded that both a departure from the existing design corpus and the production of a wide variety of subsequent designs were evidence of design freedom. Apart from emphasising that the degree of freedom to be considered was that of the designer of the registered design, the Court of Appeal appears to have agreed with this: [2011] EWCA Civ 1206, [2012] FSR 4 at [18]-[20].”This case33.M&S filed a witness statement from Jennifer Rea who is their Lead Product Developer for beers, wines and spirits. Ms Rea was the Lead Product Developer for what the development team called the “Gin Globes Project”, which ultimately led to the design protected by the registered designs in suit, via earlier iterations. The first of these, first put on the market on 17 September 2019, was called the “2019