[2023] EWHC 2176 (IPEC)

The Claimant provided witness statements from Dr Spiller and Mr Steven McEvoy, now the National Accounts Manager of the Claimant, and from Mr Chris Montgomery, who has worked in the electrical components industry for many years and at one stage worked for the old BIC. Mr Montgomery’s current company is an important customer of the Claimant. Dr Spiller and Mr McEvoy were cross-examined, Mr Montgomery was not.

No criticism was made by the Defendants of Dr Spiller’s evidence, but they suggested that Mr McEvoy gave incomplete and accordingly misleading evidence, especially as to alleged instances of confusion and the documents supporting the evidence about them. I do not consider that Mr McEvoy was trying to mislead, although I do think that he had perhaps speculated about some of the relevant email chains with customers (which I discuss below) and what they showed. He was very willing to accept that he might have made mistakes in that regard, and I formed the view that he was an honest witness, doing his best to help the Court. Nevertheless, it is necessary to consider with some care what conclusions may properly be drawn from some of the documents upon which he relied.

For the Defendants, I heard evidence from Mr Sanghvi and Mr Malcolm Clarke. Mr Clarke owns a company providing consultancy services in the electrical industry and has business relations with the First Defendant and with SWA. He too had worked for many years for the old BICC, or companies connected to it.

The Claimant submitted that Mr Sanghvi was an unsatisfactory witness, and I accept that there were some contradictions in his view of whether any reputation or goodwill had subsisted in the BICC brand when he decided to start using BICC Components. I comment on this further below, but do not consider that it means that I should treat all of his evidence as unreliable. Counsel said that Mr Clarke’s evidence was not wholly reliable, but did not explain where he was said to have been wrong. In my view, whilst he tended to interrupt counsel’s questions and sometimes gave some confused answers as a result, he too was in essence a reliable witness.