Lush's 'significant' trademark win over Amazon is 'major boost' to brands

Following Lewis Silkin and Lush's successful trade mark win over Amazon, Marketing Week have covered the judgment and claim that, subsequently, online marketplaces could be stopped from using brands' trademarks to sell rival products.

The judgment found that Lush established infringement of its trade mark, citing that the average consumer would generally be unable to ascertain that the goods identified by Amazon’s online search results in response to a search for ‘LUSH’ were not the goods of or connected with Lush. The Court also held that the “right of the public to access technological developments does not allow a trader such as Amazon to ride rough shod over intellectual property rights, to treat trade marks such as Lush as no more than a generic indication of a class of goods in which the consumer might have an interest”.

Following the judgment, Simon Chapman, partner at Lewis Silkin, says the ruling will force online retailers to “reconsider their approach” when promoting rival products.

You can read Marketing Week's article in full on their website here.