Price & ors (claimants) v Flitcraft Ltd & ors (defendants)
Wednesday 31 January 2024
This is an appeal against the Order of Nicholas Caddick KC (sitting as a DHCJ) dated 25 April 2023 and costs orders dated 3 April and 13 July 2023
The Claimants made claims of patent infringement, copyright infringement, passing off and joint tortfeasorship. The trial was in respect of issues of liability only.
The patent claims relate to two patents regarding a system for constructing a building using interconnecting insulated timber framed panels. These panels are made up of various layers which provide enhanced thermal insulation.
The copyright claims relate to copyrights in the following works:
• photographs said to have been taken in around 2006 to 2007. These were photographs of various buildings and cut-away models of sections of floor, roof and wall made using the patented invention and;
• a drawing said to have been created in 1993 which shows the front view of a two storey building broken into layers – a floor, the walls for the ground floor, a ceiling for the ground floor, the walls of the first floor and, finally, the roof.
The passing off claim arises in relation to the goodwill which the claimants say they have acquired in the name “Maple Timber Frame” and from the fact that FL is the owner of a number of domain names:
The Claimants’ case is that both Garry Flitcroft and his son, the Fourth Defendant, are liable as joint tortfeasors for the actions of FL and FTFL because they were the controlling minds of those companies and/or they directed and procured the acts said to constitute infringements.
View hearing: