A single 3D object may be protected by both copyright and design rights. This combined protection is not automatic; it must be demonstrated by the party claiming intellectual property rights. If this protection is recognised in court, the existence of infringement must still be proven. This is not always straightforward, as this case illustrates.
A toy designer is the proprietor of a registered European design relating to a transformable toy robot comprising four distinct vehicles.
A company is marketing a competing toy, the ‘RoboTruck – 5-in-1 Robot Kit’.
The design proprietor and their licensee are suing this company for infringement of the European design and copyright, as well as for unfair competition and free-riding.
The Court dismisses all of their claims
The following is, in essence, the ruling.
It is possible to combine forms of protection, although this is not automatic
➡️ For an object to be protected under both design law and copyright law, it must satisfy the conditions set out by each of these regimes separately. The court therefore examines the two bases for protection separately.
The validity of the European design is recognised
➡️ All prior art cited by the company is dismissed. This includes a Chinese patent for which the publication date cannot be established, and toys from the Transformers range which, even if validly dated, do not produce an overall visual impression on the informed user that is identical or differs only in insignificant details. The decisions handed down by the Chinese courts, which are based …
