Alert: Supreme Court holds grey market goods caught by s 92(1) of the Trade Marks Act 1994 (R v M, R v C, R v T)

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IP analysis: The Supreme Court has unanimously dismissed interlocutory appeals made in three criminal cases concerning the construction of section 92(1) of the Trade Marks Act 1994 (TMA 1994). The case turned on whether certain goods said to be sold by the appellants, which were manufactured (and had the trade mark applied to them) with the permission of the trade mark proprietor, but which were then sold without the proprietor’s consent, were caught by TMA 1994, s 92(1)(b). These goods are referred to as ‘grey market goods’ as opposed to pure counterfeit goods. The Supreme Court concluded that there was no reason to strain the construction of section 92(1) to exclude the sale of grey market goods. In so doing, it noted that putting grey goods on the market and putting fake goods on the market may both involve deception of the buying public and that...