Case Reports

The English Intellectual Property Enterprise Court has rejected a claim for trade mark infringement by a self-described “spiritual and holistic therapist” who claimed that another holistic therapist had been using her mark to market online courses and upheld a counterclaim of passing off

The High Court has set aside a bankruptcy summons where the respondent claimed to have suffered a “bombardment of calls” to his work by a Middle Eastern bank. The court held that the debtor had raised an arguable defence that the bank had harassed him after threatening to imprison him fo

The English Court of Appeal has upheld a decision of the UK Intellectual Property Office to reject two patent applications designating an artificial intelligence designed to create patentable inventions as the inventor.

The High Court has rejected a constitutional challenge to the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA) made between the EU and Canada. The action was brought by Mr Patrick Costello, a Green Party TD, who claimed that CETA would adversely affect the State’s ability to make environmental re

The High Court has dismissed an application to hold police responsible for dismantling a dangerous bonfire, finding that the threat of “widespread unrest” outweighed the effects of the anti-social and unlawful behaviour. The emergency application was brought by AB, who lives in the vicin

The UK Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal by a travel agent against a decision that it could not set aside a contractual agreement with an airline with a monopoly on flights between the UK and Pakistan for reasons of lawful act economic duress. Times Travel UK had originally brought a claim again

The Supreme Court has ruled that a prison was not liable in damages to an inmate who went on hunger strike following complaints about his living conditions. The inmate had been granted €5,000 in damages by the High Court after it was held that the prison had taken six weeks to make a decision o

The High Court has awarded both personal damages and repayment to the company in an unfair prejudice claim against a Coleraine company which voted to oust a founding shareholder. The petitioner, Mr Fergus Shaw, sought relief under section 994 of the Companies Act 2006 on the grounds that the affairs

The Supreme Court has allowed an appeal brought by a solicitor who had been found guilty of misconduct by the Solicitors Disciplinary Tribunal. The solicitor previously had appeals rejected in the High Court and Court of Appeal, where it was held that the matters which the solicitor wished to raise

The High Court has dismissed all seven headings of a land conveyance counterclaim, deeming it to be “clearly an abuse of process”. The plaintiffs, solicitor Andrea McIlroy-Rose and her late father John McIlroy, issued proceedings in 2016 seeking injunctive relief and damages for an alleg

The Supreme Court has dismissed an appeal in proceedings which sought to compel the State to establish an inquiry into the handling of a Garda investigation of a murder from 1976. Delivering judgment in the case, Chief Justice Mr Justice Frank Clarke held that there was no obligation on the State to

The Supreme Court has ruled that an expert witness retained by a plaintiff in competition proceedings should be excluded from the case on the basis that he had previously provided advise to the defendant in separate proceedings. The court held that the expert would have received confidential and pri

Northern Ireland's Court of Appeal has refused a renewed application for leave to issue judicial review proceedings against prime minister Boris Johnson for allegedly signing the Brexit deal and the Northern Ireland Protocol with no intention of adhering to it. Handing down judgment on behalf of a t

An experienced Northern Ireland solicitor who lied to the High Court about his employment and financial history in a dishonest bid to reduce his child maintenance to zero has been jailed for three months. Praising the "tenacity" of his ex-wife, who now works as a solicitor for a high-profile public

The Court of Appeal has allowed an appeal by the Department for Communities (DfC) in a challenge against the legislation which provides that certain people with a terminal illness can receive welfare benefits without undergoing a full assessment. Handing down the judgment yesterday on behalf of a th