Remedies for Breach of Copyright
The absolute transformation of everything that we ever thought about music will take place within 10 years, and nothing is going to be able to stop it. I see absolutely no point in pretending that it’s not going to happen. I’m fully confident that copyright, for instance, will no longer exist in 10 years.
— David Bowie
Start here with …
Remedies for a Copyright Dispute
Listening Activity
Vocabulary
Writing Activity
Area of law: Intellectual Property
Section 15 – Remedies for Breach of Copyright.
Listening task: Take notes.
Timing: This listening is 8 minutes and 30 seconds long.
Miss Barksdale: Good morning, Break Heart Design, Emily Barksdale speaking, how may I help you?
Lawyer: Hello, Miss Barksdale. This is John Barrow from the IP department of Henson and Bell solicitors. I’m returning your call from earlier this morning. You spoke to my secretary and I believe you’re seeking advice about someone copying some of your designs.
Miss Barksdale: Oh hello Mr Barrow. Thank you for calling back. Yes, I need some urgent advice about someone ripping off one of my designs. A local trader is blatantly copying my best-selling item and selling it just along the road from my shop. I’ve tried having a word with them, but that didn’t work. I don’t know what to do next and it’s really affecting my sales.
Lawyer: I see. Well let’s see if we can put a stop to it, shall we? Just a few details to start with. Now, what’s the name of your business, what do you design and where are you based?
Miss Barksdale: The business is called ‘Break Heart Design’ and I’m based in Eagle Street; Eagle as in the bird, next to Spitalfields Market. I’ve had the shop for 3 years or so. I sell high-quality fashion items that I’ve designed myself; jewellery, hats and handbags are my biggest sellers.
Lawyer: I see. And I take it you’re a sole trader? You’re not set up as a limited company or anything?
Miss Barksdale: Actually, I am. My mother is a good business woman and she advised me to protect my personal assets as much as I could when I set up in 2008. I’m the sole director and shareholder.
Lawyer: That was sound advice I think. I ask because it means that we need to issue any eventual claim in the name of the company and not in your own name. However, let’s hope a sternly-worded letter does the trick. Can you tell me more about the problem?
Miss Barksdale: Well, a few months ago I started selling a handbag that I called ‘Eternal Heartbreak’. It’s a fairly ordinary, small black handbag with one very distinctive feature. I’m a big fan of the Twilight films and I designed a silver attachment that clips onto the buckle of the bag. The attachment has two parts, a silver wolf and a silver cross. It’s the attachment that makes the bag so expensive, as it uses high-quality materials and each attachment is hand made.
Lawyer: I see. And what’s the retail price of this item?
Miss Barksdale: It costs me around £120 to make it and it sells for £495. It sells faster than I can make them, to be honest. Or it did, until a market trader started selling cheap copies for £30. They call it ‘The Bella’ and the design is identical. It’s made from very cheap materials of course, and is nothing like mine in terms of quality. But still, people are buying it and my sales are dropping quite dramatically.
Lawyer: Then we need to get moving quickly. Did you say you’d spoken to the people who are doing this?
Miss Barksdale: Yes, I have. They’ve got a stall in the street just around the corner from Spitalfields Market but my friends tell me they sell near Covent Garden Market as well. I went to speak to them on the first day that I became aware of what they were doing. I discovered it completely by accident. I’d popped out to deposit that days takings at the bank and I walked past their stall. I spotted my design immediately, as it’s so distinctive. I went back to the shop and phoned my brother, who came over straight away and we went round to speak to them. They weren’t aggressive or anything, but they basically told us to go away. They said they hadn’t copied my design, and even if they had, it would belong to the people who make the Twilight films and not me.
Lawyer: Did they indeed! From what you’ve told me, I can’t see that your product’s got any connection with the films at all, other than you’ve been inspired by them. You’re not using the film company’s logo or its photographic images in any way, and in fact, it’s your competitor and not you who may have infringed the IP rights of the film franchise with their use of the name ‘Bella’ in conjunction with the symbols from the film. Do you know the name of the stallholders? Or have an address where we can contact them?
Miss Barksdale: From what I can gather, they’re sole traders or partners because I’ve searched Companies House and I can find no trace of them or a registered office address. The market stall is run by a family called Winter. There is a woman called Carol Winter and her son, Harry. They’ve been market traders for years, apparently. All I’ve been able to find out about them is that they live in Archway, in North London.
Lawyer: Well, that’s a good start. We’ll have to look into it further as we may need an address for an initial letter and the service of any legal documents after that. Don’t worry though. We should be able to stop them from selling the bags fairly quickly and we’ll also force them to destroy any bags they’ve got in stock ready for sale in the future.
Miss Barksdale: That would be fantastic! I didn’t realise we could go that far.
Lawyer: Oh yes, we can. A lot of designers have been very successful lately in enforcing their Intellectual Property rights through the courts. Even big retailers like Marks and Spencer have had to destroy goods that were already on the shelves because they infringed another designer’s IP rights.
Miss Barksdale: Marks and Spencer’s had to destroy goods! Really? That’s incredible.
Lawyer: I suppose, being in the design business, you’re very familiar with the designer Jimmy Choo. He’s very famous for shoes, I think, but he also designs handbags. A few years ago his company threatened legal action against Marks and Spencer because they were selling a bag that was almost identical to one of his. The final agreement between the two parties was reached out of court and was highly confidential, but it did involve Marks and Spencer removing all of the offending items from the shelves and destroying them, I imagine at quite a cost. The bags that had already sold became a collectors’ item, I believe. Of course, Marks and Spencer didn’t admit liability at any point, and I suspect our offenders won’t either.
Miss Barksdale: Wow! That’s news to me. It seems this kind of thing is going on all the time.
Lawyer: Oh, it is. Jimmy Choo also took legal action against the chain store ‘New Look’. They were selling shoes which they called ‘The Bonbon’, which he claimed were his design. He claimed for damage to his reputation, infringement of IP rights and legal costs.
Miss Barksdale:That’s marvellous. I feel much more optimistic now about my own situation. If big organisations like that can be stopped from copying other people’s designs, we should be able to stop a small market trader from doing it.
Lawyer: I’m sure we can. Would you be able to call in to my office tomorrow to discuss this further? It would help if you would bring two things with you; an original of your bag that they are copying and a precise location for each of the Winter family’s 2 market stalls, preferably marked on a map. I suppose a home address for them would be the icing on the cake, if you could look into that and see what you can find.
Miss Barksdale: Yes, I can come in tomorrow afternoon. I’ll bring everything with me.
Lawyer: Excellent. Shall we say 2 o’clock?
Miss Barksdale: That’s fine.
Lawyer: Great. I’ll look forward to seeing you then. Goodbye for now.
Miss Barksdale: Goodbye.
Comprehension Questions
Please write answers out in a complete sentence.
1
Who did Emily Barkesdale speak to when she telephone the law firm earlier in the day?
2
What is the name of the street in which Emily Barkedale’s business is based?
3
What three high-quality fashion items does Emily name as her biggest selling items?
4
What does the lawyer hope will solve Emily’s problem before he starts any legal action?
5
What is the price of the “Eternal Heartbreak” handbag in Emily’s shop?
6
Why Emily had left her shop on the day she discovered that her product was being copied?
7
The lawyer names two intellectual property rights of the film company that he says Emily is not using. What are they?
8
What kind of agreement did the designer Jimmy Choo reach with UK retailer Marks and Spencer?
9
What did the designer Jimmy Choo claim from the store New Look in addition to damages for harm to his reputation and infringement of his IP rights?
10
What two items does the lawyer ask Emily to bring with her when she comes to her appointment the next day?
General Vocabulary
to rip off
blatantly
to have a word with someone
a sole trader
a partner
to set up
a limited company
personal assets
a sternly-worded letter
the cost
the retail price
just around the corner
in terms of
to drop dramatically
a stall
a logo
in conjuction with
not a trace
to spot
Additional Resources
General Vocabulary
to bump into
to boil down to
to have a bearing on
to hear
high-profile
to hand down
to have copyright in
to issue a claim
on the grounds of
infringement
to get things in writing
an assignment
to draw up
further declarations
a party
to hang on
a written agreement
to sky dive
a corporate advisory company
a claimant
a relationship of employment
to take place
evidence in court
to trigger off
a dispute
governing law
jurisdiction
to apply law
relevant statute
to bear in mind
a straightforward case
consideration
Writing Activity
Area of Law: Intellectual Property
Writing Task: Set out a letter threatening legal action.
Length: 500 words.
Keep a formal register and state your possible actions and solutions.
Listening Activity
General Vocabulary
to squeeze in
MPs
engaged in
a number of
a sum
to dismiss
trademark
full and final
to win a case
a small fortune
business premises
a bit shabby
a deposit
new competition
specific performance
to waive
to put a charge
bits and pieces
to lead to
to show up
a stamp duty
maternity leave
to deal with
to struggle
the case
the facts
to harm
to add fuel to the fire
a fee
reasonable legal fees
to cover
to add insult to injury
a signature
staff
extent of
complied with
to deflect
amid a storm
Indeed
just bear with me
royalty
scrutiny
to draw conclusions
to settle
to sue
to invoice / an invoice
a tenant
a landlord
self-employed
substandard work
breach of contract
to turn up
to earn a living
a Charging Order
to award
to enforce a judgment
interest and costs
bankrupt
a bailiff
to draw a line under
a battle
a solicitor
a bill
conveyancing
a mortgage lender
to borrow
to blame
a formal written warning
loopholes
clamp down
accounting
foreseeable future
to sign and date
wrongful
to sack / to fire
straight away
income
to take to court
small claims court
to take out a loan
an installment
legal interest in an asset
a claim
to hold by a third party
to seize
outcome of a case
hasn’t paid a penny
sold at auction
to complain
to follow up
to go ahead
to carry out
to chase up
a matter
to draw up
ownership
to threaten
a total sum
damages or losses
to purchase
to draw a line under something
— Mark Twain
A great American novelist, illustrated by a great American artist―now available in a collectible two-volume set. In 1936, the Heritage Press, a publisher of fine editions, commissioned Norman Rockwell to illustrate Mark Twain’s Adventures of Tom Sawyer; four years later, they asked him to illustrate The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as well. For each book, Rockwell created eight full color paintings and numerous pen-and-ink drawings, the product of extensive on-the ground research in Twain’s hometown of Hannibal, Missouri. Famously, Rockwell even tried to buy some Hannibal residents’ old clothes, to dress his models in.
For years, the Rockwell editions of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn have been unavailable in stores. Now, Abbeville Press is proud to reissue them as a handsome new clothbound set.
The color plates are reproduced from new photography of Rockwell’s original paintings, the typesetting has been done anew to a high standard, and new introductions―illustrated with Rockwell’s rarely seen preliminary sketches―examine this unique encounter between two legendary chroniclers of America.
Publisher’s note: These volumes present Mark Twain’s text unabridged and unedited, as it appeared in the original American editions of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885).
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About the Author
Eric Froiland
Eric is a legal English teacher from the United States and has been based out of Bogota, Colombia for the last 10 years. He is the owner and founder of Legal English Innovation SAS, which is recognized as the top legal English academy in Colombia and is an official Test of Legal English Skills (TOLES) examination center.
