The recent South African case of Nestle Nespresso S.A. v
Secret River Trading cc t/a Caffeluxe Distributors (Western
Cape High Court, Judge Davis, 5 October 2015) dealt with the
unusual issue of copyright in a coffee machine.
Nestle claimed that it had copyright in drawings "depicting
the external design of the Nespresso Essenza espresso coffee
machine". The company's complaint was that a
local business, Caffeluxe Distributors, had infringed its
copyright, or at least aided and abetted the infringement. It had
done this, said Nestle, by importing similar-looking machines that
had been manufactured in China, which it knew infringed
Nestle's copyright. These machines, which were called Sienna,
had been sold in South Africa by a leading retail chain, Shoprite
Checkers. The retailer had not, however, been joined in the
proceedings, a fact that did not impress the judge. There was some
dispute as to whether Caffeluxe Distributors had actually imported
the machines, or
