United Airlines, the famous US airline, has won a comprehensive victory and obtained summary judgment in the High Court against a Bangladeshi airline that went under the name United Airways. The High Court dismissed arguments that the words were different and they were operating on different trading routes. It awarded the US airline victory for breach of Sections 10(1), 10(2) and 10(3) of the Trade Marks Act as well as passing off.
The court said that the Bangladeshi airline’s name was so similar to the US airline name that consumers would ignore any difference between “airline” and “airways” and as the services were the same (despite the routes being different), Section 10(1) was breached. Section 10(1) says that it is an infringement of registered trade mark rights if the same mark is used in respect of same services. Section 10(2) deals with similar names or similar services but with a likelihood of customer confusion. Section 10(3) relates to taking unfair advantage of another strong brand for example use of a name in bad faith. As to passing off, the US’s goodwill was made out, and it was clear that the Bangladeshi company’s use of the name would mislead consumers and cause confusion. There was no realistic prospect of defending any of those four claims, let alone all of them, and so summary judgment was awarded.