Who? Simon Chapman, 46, solicitor at Lewis Silkin.
Why is he in the news? Acted on behalf of ethical cosmetics company Lush in a trademark battle against Amazon. Lush does not allow Amazon to sell its products and has been critical of the way it operates. The company brought the case against Amazon for directing consumers to alternative cosmetic protects when they typed ‘lush’ into the search field.
Amazon also ran a Google AdWords campaign, displaying products from rival brands when customers typed in the keywords ‘Lush bath products’.
In the Lush v Amazon case, the High Court found that Lush established infringement of its trademark, and that the average consumer would 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.
John Baldwin QC, sitting as a deputy judge in the Chancery Division, said Amazon had damaged the ‘origin function, advertising function and investment function’ of the Lush trademark by directing consumers to alternative products.
Thoughts on the case: ‘This was about making sure that when the consumer searched for Lush online they would not be deceived.
‘The use of Google AdWords has been litigated over for the last few years. The legal issues are now clear – you can’t use someone else’s trademark in the AdWords.’
Why become a lawyer? ‘I’m a naturally inquisitive but also naturally argumentative person.’
Career high: ‘When I was an articled clerk and did a hearing against a managing partner in another firm that was successful.’
Career low: ‘A couple of weeks later when a file was thrown at me as I’d got it in the wrong order.’
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