28 March 2024, 13:07
By Furniture News Mar 06, 2018

Halo wins $3.8m IP victory in US

Anti Copying in Design (ACID) member Halo Creative & Design (Halo) has won a significant victory against Comptoir Des Indes (CDI) in Chicago, Illinois, with a permanent injunction following a guilty verdict in the design patent, trademark and copyright infringement suit by a federal jury sitting in Chicago.

In a case involving Halo’s most iconic furniture and lighting designs, the jury found CDI’s infringement to be knowing and wilful.

The case, filed in October 2014, involved two of Halo’s US Design Patents, including one covering Halo’s award-winning Aviator Tomcat Chair, Halo’s Odeon trademark covering an entire line of cascading crystal chandeliers and lamps, and Halo’s nine copyrights in many of its other well-known and best-selling furniture and lighting designs, including Halo’s caged Gyro Crystal Chandelier.

The court’s permanent injunction, which prohibits CDI from selling, offering for sale, or promoting the infringing products within the US also extended to CDI’s ecommerce platforms, including its distributors.

The court also entered an order awarding Halo pre-judgment interest on the amount awarded by the jury, bringing Halo’s total damages award to nearly $3.8m.

Emily Haslam, Halo’s general counsel, says: “The Halo Group is sincerely gratified that the Federal Court and the Jury have recognised Halo’s intellectual property rights in its iconic furniture and lighting designs. This is a landmark case, for Halo, our legal team and the entire furniture and lighting design industry in the US. We are particularly pleased that the court acknowledged and vindicated our copyright rights in many of our original furniture and lighting designs. Original designers should not have to stand by and watch copyists flood the global market with cheap imitations of their genuine products.”

Dids Macdonald OBE, ACID’s CEO, comments: “Halo’s proactive global IP strategy is consistent and robust and this sends a crystal clear message of a zero tolerance to IP infringement. They are determined to challenge any copies which dilute their highly successful design-led brand in any way. Companies such as Comptoir des Indes have learnt a very expensive lesson – a message Halo hope will be heard far and wide in their fight against unlawful infringement, a sanitised word for theft.”

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