Damian Reece wrote for the Telegraph that Dyson lost its claim in the High Court that its design right was infringed by the Mach Zen of Vax, a Chinese manufacturer of vacuum cleaners, whose design looks very similar indeed. See picture: left Dyson, right Vax. Judge for yourself.
Read Mr Reece’s article for the Telegraph here.
I have not read why Dyson lost the case and whether Dyson registered its design rights or not (UK has also unregistered design rights, since 1989, just like throughout the European Community since 2002). Many Chinese infringing companies have the ambition to be a player on the world market, therefore they can not only be sued in China but oftentimes at a court in one of the markets they are exporting to.
Hi Peter,Great, thank you!Cheers,Danny
There's a report on the website of Vax's patent attorneys http://www.forresters.co.uk/news/085vax.htm, and I have posted a piece on my IP blog http://www.ipsojure.co.uk giving a little more details – but the judgment is not yet available, so we cannot be sure of much. Incidentally, the UK has had design registration since at least 1839.