Wine importer loses ‘battle of the bottles’ in copyright claim (Martin v Bodegas San Huberto SA)
IP analysis: UK importers take note—the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court has upheld an artist's claim that a label on wine bottles imported into and sold in the UK by a UK company infringed copyright in an original work and amounted to passing off. The Argentinian supplier had arranged for a designer to produce a suitable design for the label and the importer did not question its choice. Of the three labels around which the allegations centred, the court held that one was ‘very clearly a substantial reproduction’ of the artist's work—even though it represented only a very small part of the original (Infopaq International A/S followed). It was irrelevant that the director of the UK importer was unaware of the issue until the artist herself complained, highlighting the risk that comes with strict liability torts such as the statutory tort of copyright infringement and the common law tort of passing off. Written by Aaron Cole, counsel, and Patricia Wade, expertise counsel, Ashurst LLP.