Damages in France: is there a sign of an upward trend?

SNCF: from chemin de fer
to information highway

Last October Tribunal de Grande Instance de Paris ruled in favour of French national railway operator Société nationale des chemins de fer français (SNCF) in a dispute concerning the registration of a domain name which infringed the company's SNCF trade mark. Opting to sue for trade mark infringement rather than merely go for a domain name transfer via a cheap-and-cheerful domain name arbitration, SNCF hit the jackpot.  The court not only ordered the transfer of the domain name but ordered the infringer to pay the following sums:

* €10,000 for trade mark infringement;
* €5,000 for violation of the SNCF's rights in the domain name sncf-usa.com and
* €5,000 for perpetrating a misleading commercial practice.
* Costs of €5,000.

The authors of the source from which this note is taken add:

"In terms of brand protection strategy, there is little doubt that the prospect of court action is a more powerful deterrent than a UDRP decision. The defendant in the present case is now in the position of having to find €25,000, a significant sum which will certainly make him and others think twice about such behaviour".

Even apart from the deterrent factor, it seems to this blogger that, on the whole, damages in French trade mark infringement proceedings have in the past tended to be fairly low.  While €25,000 is not exactly a king's ransom, it strikes him as indicating that, possibly since the coming into force of the EU's IP Enforcement Directive, French damages awards may have become a little more generous.  IP Finance would be happy to hear from French readers as to whether this impression is correct.

Source: "Court decision sends strong warning to cybersquatters", written for World Trademark Review by David Taylor and Vincent Denoyelle (Hogan Lovells, Paris).

Star Wars damages enforcement case

George Lucas, the creator of the films, is suing prop designer Andrew Ainsworth who made the first helmets and suits for the original 1977 film and is now selling replicas made at his studio in Twickenham, south west London. According to the Daily Telegraph article George Lucas is trying to enforce the £10 million damages awarded to him by a California judge in 2006. However, Andrew Ainsworth is counterclaiming for a slice of the £6 billion in merchandising generated by Star Wars since 1977. The case deals with ownership and the existence of IP rights in the props as well as the quantum of damages to be awarded/enforced.

According to a quip in The Metro, the case which started this morning and is expected to last for ten days, commenced in amusing fashion with a stormtrooper staring down the judge:

Michael Bloch QC, representing Lucasfilm, looked at the armour and helmets surrounding him and told Mr Justice Mann today: "The gentlemen sitting in front of me and around me, who are known throughout the world, are the subject matter of the entire case."

The judge, looking at the white armour of the Stormtrooper in front of him, asked: "Will they be there for the entire case?"

Mr Bloch continued: "You will hear a lot about helmets and armour. As far as we know they are half human and half non-human and are known as Stormtroopers. What we are dealing with are characters of the imagination."