Vertical Leisure v Poleplus, Intellectual Property Enterprise Court
In 2014, the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court ruled that an employee of Poleplus had been involved in passing off by registering the domain name incorporating the brand of a competitor, Vertical Leisure. The IPEC also said that this constituted an instrument of fraud. Vertical Leisure’s case against Poleplus was not as clear-cut and needed to go to full trial. The issue boiled down to the level of responsibility that Poleplus had for the actions of the employee.
The Intellectual Property Enterprise Court has now ruled in the further hearing. Even though Poleplus did not know exactly what the employee had done until after the event, it was found to be vicariously liable for the acts of passing off, as well as jointly liable on the basis that the employee was acting in his capacity as the company’s agent. Vicarious liability arose as the primary purpose in the employee’s mind was to protect the interests of the company and the registrations were within the type of acts for which he was employed. The IPEC added that he was the company’s agent too, as the director knew the employee was registering domain names on behalf of the company and had authorised to do this.