IP-2020-000029 - [2024] EWHC 3058 (IPEC)

Section 1C(1) of the 1949 Act provides:

Mr Barber accepted that a letter box tool must have a U-shape of some sort so that it hooks through the letter box and bypasses the security hood if present. He pointed to the Souber tool to illustrate the point. Otherwise, Mr Barber said, the tool can have any shape, adding that in the case of the registered design, the particular overall shape was chosen to make the product aesthetically distinctive.

Mr Wakefield agreed that a U-shape was a necessary minimum, but said that the particular shape of the Registered Design made the product more effective in bypassing the security hood of the letter box.

Mr Wakefield was not able to make clear how the precise shape of the Registered Design improves effective entry over reasonably possible alternatives and why that shape was required to achieve effective performance. I think it is likely that a designer of letter box tools has significant room for variation once the U-shape has been incorporated. Looking at the design corpus, it seems that even the U-shape can vary. I find that s.1C(1) of the 1949 Act has no bearing on the present case.