[2025] EWHC 1722 (IPEC)

This is my judgment following the trial of liability only in a trade mark and passing off claim. As the parties’ names suggest, the dispute relates to the use of the name WISE. Not only does the Claimant accuse the Defendants of trade mark infringement and passing off, which the Defendants dispute, but the Defendants claim that the Claimant and the parties connected to it are passing off their business as that of the First Defendant. The Defendants have counterclaimed, alleging, first, that the Claimant has passed off its goods and services for those of the First Defendant, secondly, that two trade marks relied on in the infringement claim, as well as two further WISE trade marks owned by the Claimant, are invalid, having been registered in bad faith. Thirdly, the Defendants allege that the Claimant’s two most recent marks were invalidly registered in light of its earlier unregistered rights.