Walker Morris wins £7.5m for Venice hotel
YORKSHIRE law firm Walker Morris has won more than £7.5m in damages for its client the Hotel Cipriani following a court case over its trade mark.
Following the success last week in the Court of Appeal on behalf of its client, the world famous Hotel Cipriani in Venice – the favourite destination of royalty, film stars, politicians and celebrities – the Leeds legal firm has achieved another major victory related to the case.
In a further hearing before Mr Justice Briggs sitting in the High Court this week more than £7.5m in damages was awarded in favour of the Hotel Cipriani, owned by Orient Express, and the assets of the defendant’s parent company, Cipriani International SA, were frozen interim on a worldwide basis.
Cipriani SA is the parent company of the restaurant owning companies of the Cipriani Family which operate the Cipriani London restaurant in London’s Mayfair.
On top of the damages award, the defendants were ordered to pay the costs of the High Court and Court of Appeal trials and the costs of the High Court damages hearing.
The damages were awarded by way of an account of profit made from their acts of infringement of the Cipriani trade mark and of ‘passing off’.
Last week, Walker Morris acted for the Hotel Cipriani on its successful defence of an appeal by the Cipriani family against a High Court decision in December 2008.
In that decision, the High Court found for the Hotel Cipriani in an action for trade mark infringement and passing off in respect of the Cipriani mark for restaurant services, against the operators of the Cipriani London restaurant. The Court of Appeal refused leave to appeal to the Supreme Court.
The judgment means that members of the Cipriani family, who still own the famous Harry’s Bar in Venice but who sold their interests in the hotel more than 40 years ago, can no longer use the Cipriani name on restaurants in the UK.
The team at Walker Morris consisted of the solicitors Patrick Cantrill, Kate Pollock, Lynsey Smith and Sam Bristow. Counsel for the hotel were Iain Purvis QC and Benet Brandreth of 11 South Square, Gray’s Inn, London.
