On January 27, 2020, the United Kingdom Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (IPEC), a specialist court part of the Business and Property Courts of the High Court of Justice that handles cases relating to intellectual property disputes, dismissed a trademark infringement case brought against Amazon by Lifestyle Equities, owner of fashion brand Beverly Hills Polo Club (BHPC) in the United Kingdom and the European Union.
After a business split in 2008, Lifestyle Equities became owner of the BHPC trademark in the United Kingdom and the European Union, while another company called BHPC Associates owns the BHPC brand and corresponding trademark rights in the United States. The trademarks protect clothing, luggage, watches and perfumery.
According to Lifestyle Equities, Amazon infringed its trademark by allowing BHPC products that were manufactured, promoted and commercialized in the United States by BHPC Associates to be listed on its specific websites for the United Kingdom and the European Union.
Amazon argued that, after receiving complaints by Lifestyle Equities, the company put in place measures and restrictions to protect Lifestyle Equities trademark rights and prevent any sales of US based BHPC goods from Amazon’s websites for the United Kingdom and the European Union. According to Amazon, sales of US based BHPC products from such websites had been “historically tiny” and made through Amazon Global Store, which cross-listed products from US website Amazon.com onto Amazon’s sites for the UK and the EU.
Justice Michael Green from IPEC said that the fact that a website is accessible from anywhere in the world, and may attract occasional interest from consumers there when this is not intended, should not give rise to any form of liability. “In my judgment it is plain that both amazon.com and the BHPC listings on it are not targeted at the UK/EU consumer. Such a consumer knows full well that they are viewing or shopping on the Amazon website that is primarily directed at US consumers,”, Green stated.
