Trashed: depiction of registered bin design held to be infringing

In Sangenic International Limited v Lamico ApS (A-11-15, September 10 2015), the Maritime and Commercial Court has considered whether the depiction of a registered design infringed the design right.

Plaintiff Sangenic International Limited owned a registered Community design (RCD 001115398-008) for a waste bin for nappies. Defendant Lamico ApS manufactured refill bags for such bins. Lamico's refills fit Sangenic's waste bin, among others.

To illustrate that Lamico's refills fit Sangenic's bins, Lamico included a small drawing of Sangenic's bin on its labels.

Sangenic claimed that any reproduction of its registered design implied a violation of its rights under the Community Design Regulation (6/2002) and applied to the Maritime and Commercial Court for an interim injunction.

Lamico claimed that the reproduction was legal, in good faith and in the interest of promoting competition within the market. It also claimed that Article 19 of the regulation does not mention depictions and, in the alternative, that the reproduction was covered by the limitation in Article 20.1(c).

The court found that any reproduction constitutes an infringement of the design right and issued an interim injunction. The decision is under appeal. The question of whether such a reproduction is a violation has not been decided before; many businesses - especially those manufacturing spare parts - will await future developments with interest.

Mads Marstrand-Jørgensen, NJORD Law Firm, Copenhagen