[2025] EWHC 1722 (IPEC)

The Defendants applied in November 2024, after disclosure, to re-amend the Defence and Counterclaim, to add a further counterclaim for revocation of the Wise Logo Mark for non-use. That mark had been registered on 1 March 2019, so the claim for revocation could not have been made until March 2024, after the CMC, but could have been made earlier than in November. HHJ Hacon rejected the application to amend for the reasons given in his judgment of 13 December 2024 ([2024] EWHC 3448(IPEC)). I understand that the Defendants have instead issued separate proceedings for revocation for non-use under claim No. IP-2024-000138. Those proceedings remain at an early stage. The Claimant in these proceedings applied, prior to filing a Defence, to strike out the second proceedings as an abuse of process. Its application is due to be heard later this month. There were, therefore, no issues of revocation before me in this trial and nothing in this judgment is intended to pre-empt the substance of the revocation claim, bearing in mind that the Claimant’s disclosure and evidence did not deal directly with the scope of use of the Wise Logo Mark.