IP-2023-000104 - [2024] EWHC 233 (IPEC)

In American Cyanamid Co v Ethicon Ltd [1975] AC 396, the threshold test for the grant of an interim injunction was characterised by Lord Diplock as the court being satisfied that “there is serious question to be tried” (at 407) and that the material before the court must disclose that the claimant has “[a] real prospect of succeeding in his claim … at trial” (at 408). These state the same test, see Smith v Inner London Education Authority [1978] 1 All ER 411 (CA) at 419. It implies that the threshold test in American Cyanamid is the same as the test of “no real prospect of succeeding on the claim or issue/successfully defending the claim or issue” in CPR Part 24.3(a). Morris J treated them as the same in Create Financial Management LLP v Lee [2020] EWHC 1933 (QB), at [53], as will I. CCL’s application for summary judgment is determinative of the threshold test in the defendants’ application for interim relief.