Overseas Food Supplier Retrieves UK Trademark Registration

Facts: Our client was an Italian cheese manufacturer who had been supplying his UK distributor with luxury dairy and cheese products under the Italian brand name for some years. The UK distributor had stopped ordering and had started selling a competing cheese product that he was manufacturing himself but still under our client’s name. Upon investigation we discovered that the UK distributor had filed a trademark registration in his own name which effectively meant he had hijacked our client’s trademark. We were able to stop the UK distributor selling product under our client’s name and compelled the distributor to transfer the UK trademark registration back to our client for nil cost, relying on the provisions of the Trade Marks Act 1994.