The owner of a group of entertainment venues which trade as ‘the Glee Club’ has been successful in its claim that the successful US television ‘Glee’ has infringed its trade mark, which was registered in 1999.
The Club also group claimed that Glee Club had ‘passed itself off’ (traded using its trade mark and made a profit by so doing), claiming that the public were confused between the two companies. The High Court rejected that claim.
Central to the club’s claim was that it had evidence that potential visitors to its clubs were discouraged form so doing because they mistakenly thought they were linked to the TV series.