Dryrobe Judgment Provides Useful Guidance On Avoiding Trade Mark Genericism

On 4 December the IPEC handed down its judgment in the case of Dryrobe Limited v Caesr Group Limited t/a D-Robe Outdoors. It relates to the trade mark infringement and passing off case brought by Dryrobe, the well known outdoor clothing manufacturer and retailer.

Dryrobe survived invalidity and revocation challenges brought by the defendant, and ultimately succeeded in their claim for trade mark infringement and passing off in respect of the defendant's use of the mark D-ROBE.

What is particularly interesting about the judgment (and what I focus on in this article) is its detailed analysis of D-Robe's counterclaim that the DRYROBE trade marks should be revoked as they had become generic pursuant to s46(1)(c) Trade Marks Act 1994 (TMA).