On 27 May, in Yellow Van Company Ltd v Driver [2014] EWHC 2135 (IPEC), Judge Hacon of the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court, England and Wales, refused to set aside a judgment in default of acknowledgement of service and defence, brought by the owners of the trade mark and other rights to The Big Yellow Van Company and two accompanying logos against an individual who maintained that he had the right to trade under that name.  The claimant alleged trade mark infringement, passing off and copyright infringement.  The judgment in default was originally made by Mr Justice Arnold and the defendant had shown no compelling reason to set it aside.

Last Friday, 18 July, the case was back before Judge Hacon on an application to have the defendant committed for contempt of court for breaches of the original order. In an extempore judgment, the court fined the defendant £10,000 for his failure. While he maintained that he had complied with parts of the order, he was still in breach of it; he had been shown to be an unreliable person and his attitude towards the court's order was somewhat dismissive. While it was not appropriate to commit him to prison, a substantial fine was in order.