[2024] EWHC 1727 (IPEC)

The Claimant’s first witness was David Carpenter. Mr Carpenter has been a Technical Director of the Claimant since 1999 and of its parent company since 2015. He gave evidence relating to the manufacture and use of AGA Cookers and about the strip down analysis that he carried out on the eControl Cooker shown in the photographs above. He explained why, in his view, the work that had been done on that cooker went beyond what he considered to be an acceptable level of refurbishment and why it might be damaging to the AGA brand. He was cross examined and, in closing, Mr Malynicz suggested that a lot of his evidence had been “highly tendentious”, that he had been “a little overzealous” in defending the Claimant’s position and reluctant to accept that the eControl Cookers might have been better than the original unrefurbished AGA Cookers. I do not accept these criticisms. In my judgment, Mr Carpenter was a good witness doing his best to assist the court.

The Claimant also relied on the evidence of Martin Johnson. Mr Johnson was a senior product design and development engineer with the Claimant and gave evidence as to the creation of the design for the control panel on which the Claimant’s copyright claim was based. He too was cross examined and I am satisfied that he was a straightforward and honest witness doing his best to assist the court.

Finally, the Claimant relied on the evidence of Jennifer Hyatt. As Sales and Marketing Director for the parent company of the Claimant, her role is to cultivate and enhance the reputation of the AGA brand and her evidence dealt in detail with the history of that brand and of AGA Cookers going back to 1922 and to the first sales of such cookers in the UK in 1929. In the event, the Defendants elected not to cross examine Ms Hyatt and her evidence can, therefore, be accepted as unchallenged.

The Defendants’ sole witness was Mr McGinley. In closing, Mr Selmi questioned Mr McGinley’s credibility and it is true that Mr McGinley came across as somewhat more combative than the Claimant’s witnesses. However, I think it must be borne in mind that he was a personal defendant and the First Defendant is very much his company. Listening to his evidence, I formed the view that, for the most part, he engaged constructively with the cross examination and was doing his best to assist the court. This impression was reinforced on reading the transcript of his evidence.