Case Nos: IP-2023-000039 and IP-2023-000132 - [2024] EWHC 2889 (IPEC)

Currentbody submitted that on a correct construction of ‘generally known’, the lifting of the obligations of confidentiality allowed for by clause 3(1) did not operate until after the acts in breach of clause 2(5) were done. Currentbody said that for information to become ‘generally known’ within the meaning of clause 3(1) it requires more than one disclosure, e.g. to the UKIPO. It is a question of fact and degree which will require evidence at trial.

ISD said at the hearing that on any view the information had become generally known by 2020 because the designs were published in Vogue UK and Hello magazines.

Currentbody complained that these publications were raised for the first time in evidence less than 3 days before the hearing in breach of CPR 24.5(3)(b).