The recent unregistered design infringement action in Kohler Mira Ltd v Bristan Group Ltd [2014] EWHC 1931 (IPEC) and the principles on which damages were to be assessed has already been reported on Class 99, thanks to David Musker, here. Now, courtesy of law firm Wragge Lawrence Graham & Co (who acted for successful plaintiff Mira) we have a bit of first-hand comment concerning the actual sum awarded.  In the absence of an acceptable offer of settlement, Mira fought on to the enquiry and secured a damages award of over £227,000 (around 286,000 euro) plus interest and costs. This is the second highest award in the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court for England and Wales since procedural reforms were introduced in 2010.

After holding that Bristan was "nowhere close" to establishing an innocence defence under s 233(1) of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 -- which it raised for the first time only at the phase at which the quantum of damages was to be assessed -- Judge Hacon awarded damages on the basis of a reasonable royalty.  Since Mira's design had been identified in the substantive proceedings as "something of a breakthrough in the industry", the judge recognised this by increasing the profits due to Mira from 25% to 30% of the total profits available. This gave a royalty rate of 6.7% on Bristan's sales price of the infringing products.