Cipriani restaurant loses appeal in trade mark dispute

Mayfair restaurant Cipriani has lost its appeal against its defeat in a trade mark dispute with the owners of the iconic Hotel Cipriani in Venice. The Court of Appeal confirmed a 2008 High Court ruling that because of the “confusion” created by the restaurant’s name the Cipriani family must remove it from the restaurant. The hotel’s owner, Orient Express Hotels Group (OEHG) had sued on the basis of its ownership of the Cipriani community trade mark in Europe for hotels and restaurants, even though the Cipriani family, which controls the London restaurant, opened the Venice hotel in 1959 before selling it to OEHG in 1976. In December 2008, the High Court found that companies controlled by the Cipriani family and Giuseppe Cipriani personally were all liable for trade mark infringement and passing off in respect of the “Cipriani” mark. Dismissing the family’s appeal against that ruling, Lloyd LJ said that the hotel “does not carry on any business at premises in the UK, but the business that it does carry on in Venice has an international reputation” and that the trial judge has been right to conclude that the claim should succeed. Lloyd LJ ordered the family to pay costs and damages to the hotel. In a statement following the ruling, the family said that it was considering an appeal to the Supreme Court. Hotel Cipriani SRL and others v Cipriani (Grosvenor Street) Ltd and others Court of Appeal (Jacob, Lloyd and Stanley Burnton LJJ) 24 February 2010. Simon Thorley QC, James Mellor QC and Charlotte May (instructed by Withers LLP) appeared for the appellants; Iain Purvis QC and Benet Brandreth (instructed by Walker Morris, of Leeds) appeared for the respondents.