Publisher
IPC has fended off an attempt by a company calling itself Ideal Home
Ltd to have the trademark for its market- leading magazine Ideal Home
revoked or severely limited.
Ideal Home Ltd, which promotes and
endorses lifestyle products, took IPC to court arguing that the Ideal
Home trademark should be revoked on the basis of non-use over a
five-year period, or at least limited to interior decoration magazines
only.
But a judge rejected the “non-use” claim, accepting
evidence from IPC that the magazine was the market leader in the home
interest sector, covering topics ranging from gardening to cookery, as
well as interiors.
The trademark had also been used by IPC on two books in the past five years.
However, the judge agreed to revoke the trademark for use on products such as videos, CDs and films.
The
ruling comes in the wake of a High Court decision last December in
which Mr Justice Laddie rejected a challenge by IPC against Highbury
Leisure relating to design details of Home, its rival interiors
magazine.
In the first case of its kind to go to court the judge
ruled that IPC had fallen “far short of making out its allegation of
copying”.
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