August - 2018

Hislop v Perde: a shift in the claimant/defendant balance for Part 36 offers?

On 23 July 2018 the Court of Appeal handed down its decision on the appeal of Hislop v Perde [2018] EWCA Civ 1726. It held that in cases where a Claimant’s part 36 offer is accepted out of time and where the claim is subject to the fixed costs regime of CPR 45, the fixed costs regime continued to apply until the eventual date of acceptance. In this case the claimant was not entitled to standard or indemnity costs for the period between the expiry date and the late acceptance

Nestlé loses trademark battle for four-fingered Kit Kat shape

On Wednesday 25 July 2018 the European Court of Appeal ruled that Nestlé’s Kit Kat’s shape was not sufficiently distinctive in all European countries to successfully acquire trademark protection across the EU. It was held that it is not enough to prove that the "four trapezoidal bars aligned on a rectangular base" had become well-known in a “significant part” of the EU; rather, it must be proven across all Member States. In this case, Nestlé had not shown the product’s shape