nominal damages

When is trade mark use on an overseas website an infringement in Australia

Leave a Comment / Trade marks / / / , , , , , , , , , ,

Last week reviewed the notice and take down / moderation procedure the majority of the Full Federal Court adopted to limit the injunction against Redbubble’s trade mark infringement. In the course of allowing Redbubble’s appeal, the Full Federal Court also unanimously flagged significant questions about when the use of a trade mark on a website overseas may constitute trade mark infringement in Australia.

On these matters, Perram and Downes JJ delivered the main reasons and Nicholas, Burley and Rofe JJ agreed.

Some more facts

You will recall, Redbubble operates a website to which creators can upload their designs and customers can then buy merchandise to which the customers have chosen to have the designs applied. Once a customer has placed an order, Redbubble undertakes the fulfilment function including having the products manufactured and delivered to the customer branded with Redbubble’s trade marks.

Redbubble’s servers (at least in this case) are in the United States.

This part of the appeal concerned the second part of the trial – transactions 8 to 11. In the case of these “transactions”, Hells Angels’ trade marks officer in Australia merely viewed the trade mark infringing images on Redbubble’s website; he did not even make a trap purchase. There was no evidence that anyone else in Australia ever viewed the images or bought them.

Did this infringe?

The short answer is “yes”. But it is how the Full Federal Court got there that will require careful consideration in the future.

At first instance

The starting proposition is that for trade mark infringement in Australia there must be unauthorised use of the trade mark (or a substantially identical or deceptively similar sign) as a trade mark – i.e. as a badge of origin.[1]

Way back in 2005, Merkel J had concluded in Ward v Brodie the fact that a website was accessible from Australia was not sufficient to establish use; it was necessary to show that the website was directed at or targeted Australia.[2]

At first instance in this case, Greenwood J having found that the trap purchases (transactions ##1 to 7) infringed also found that transactions ##8 to 11 infringed even without a purchase. In doing so, his Honour applied the proposition that he had propounded in his 2019 ruling (which also involved trap purchases) at [469]:

The capacity to engage, in Australia, through the website, as Mr Hansen did, constitutes use in Australia by Redbubble. [3]

The appeal

Redbubble had not disputed that proposition at trial. It did seek to raise it as Ground 1 of its appeal. As it had not sought to argue the ground at first instance, however, this would have required leave and ultimately it did not press it.

So, it was unnecessary for the Full Federal Court to deal with the issue. At [48], however, their Honours placed a question over the correctness of Greenwood J’s proposition. Perram and Downes JJ said:

For the reasons which follow, to the extent that [469] of the 2019 judgment deals with the situation disclosed by Examples 8 to 11, we would reserve the correctness of that statement for a case where it is directly raised.

In the following paragraphs, their Honours identified at least three issues which would need to be addressed.

Why is a trap ‘viewing’ not an authorised use

The first issue was why a trap viewing was not a direct infringement.

Here, Perram and Downes JJ considered the trap purchases in Ward v Brodie had not been infringing because (now repealed) s 123(1) of the Trade Marks Act had provided it was not an infringement to use a trade mark in relation to goods to which the trade mark had been applied by or with the consent of the trade mark owner.

With the repeal of that provision, however, that proposition could no longer be applied. Further, at [50] their Honours questioned whether the replacement provision, s 122A,[4] “could be pressed into service” instead. Although their Honours expressed no concluded view at this stage.

However, Perram and Downes JJ at [51] questioned Merkel J’s conclusion in Ward v Brodie that a trap purchase was not authorised use under s 8(1). As a consequence, their Honours considered it would also be arguable that at least some of the trap viewer’s actions in viewing the images (i.e. requesting Redbubble to serve the images to the trap viewer) might also be authorised use and so fall within the defence provided by s 122(1)(e).

Noting once again that these matters had not been argued and so did not need to be decided, at [52] Perram and Downes JJ considered whether authorised use could in fact be made out could be “highly dependent on the particular facts”.

The reason for this warning lay in the different nature of some of the trap “views”. Mr Hansen, the Hells Angels’ trade mark officer had navigated to the Redbubble website and specifically requested the image displayed in transaction #8. The Redbubble website, however, included a carousel feature. So that, when image #8 was displayed the website automatically presented to him other images (##9 and 11) which Redbubble recommended to him.

The geographical reach of s 120(1)

The second issue the Full Federal Court raised was the geographical reach of infringement under the Australian Act. That is, there must be use as a trade mark in Australia. The Act does not reach acts outside Australia (if they do not involve trade mark use in Australia).

Is viewing an overseas website from Australia enough

Thirdly, Perram and Downes JJ at [57] considered it is open to question whether a website overseas which is merely viewed by people from Australia (other than a trap “viewer”) without purchase would constitute use as a trade mark in Australia. Their Honours noted that the previous decisions (apart from Greenwood J’s decision under appeal) including Christian v Nestlé involved an actual trade in Australia.

Noting that Moorgate Tobacco v Philip Morris established a threshold requirement for trade mark use that there “be an actual trade or offer to trade in the goods in Australia”, their Honours explained at [62]:

The question of whether mere overseas projection without a local trade in the goods can amount to trade mark use in Australia is, in our view, a question of considerable difficulty. It is made potentially more complex in this case because although the website is hosted from servers in the United States there is no doubt that Redbubble conducts business in Australia. The difficulty is that that business does not appear to have involved, in the case of Examples 8 to 11, any more than projection into the Australian market without any consequent trade in goods bearing the marks. An important question is whether the necessary geographical nexus for use of a trade mark in Australia can be established by the mere fact that the trader is engaged in trade in Australia albeit not in relation to the infringing trade mark. The answers to these questions are not self-evident. (emphasis supplied)

At [63], Perram and Downes JJ concluded:

On the current state of the authorities, we regard the matter as undetermined. At no point in either of the trial judge’s decisions does his Honour traverse these issues. We would therefore not read [469] of the 2019 judgment as resolving them.

Perhaps the issue that concerned their Honours is that, in the bricks and mortar world, Yanx established that consumers in Australia who bought “Yanx” cigarettes in the USA and imported them into Australia for their own personal use did not use the Yanx trade mark as a trade mark. The transaction was completed in the USA and the goods, when imported for the consumers’ own personal use, was no longer in the course of trade.

On the other side of the ledger, however, Deane J said in Moorgate at 433 –434:

The cases establish that it is not necessary that there be an actual dealing in goods bearing the trade mark before there can be a local use of the mark as a trade mark. It may suffice that imported goods which have not actually reached Australia have been offered for sale in Australia under the mark (Re The Registered Trade Mark “Yanx”; Ex parte Amalgamated Tobacco Corporation Ltd., at pp 204–205) or that the mark has been used in an advertisement of the goods in the course of trade (The Shell Co. of Australia v. Esso Standard Oil (Australia) Ltd., at p 422). In such cases however, it is possible to identify an actual trade or offer to trade in the goods bearing the mark or an existing intention to offer or supply goods bearing the mark in trade. In the present case, there was not, at any relevant time, any actual trade or offer to trade in goods bearing the mark in Australia or any existing intention to offer or supply such goods in trade. There was no local use of the mark as a trade mark at all; there were merely preliminary discussions and negotiations about whether the mark would be so used.

One might think that a website which was directed at, or targeting, Australians was making an offer to trade here or had an existing intention to offer and supply here, even if there is no actual sale. At least arguably, that does not seem very different, if at all, to advertisements in magazines circulating in Australia with the aim of soliciting custom. Moreover, (and this may require evidence in a particular case), if one clicks on the “Buy Now” or “Purchase” button on most websites, the whole transaction is automated and does not involve a volitional decision by the website operator whether or not to complete the transaction.

So why did Redbubble infringe

At the risk of simplifying the arguments very significantly, Redbubble’s argument was a kind of de minimis argument that the infringing images were not available to consumers in the ordinary course of trade.

This argument had two main strands to it. One strand was that the Hells Angels had been able to identify the accused images only through a prolonged period totalling some 4.5 hours over approximately 7 hours – typing in “Hells Angels” and filtering for “Newest”. Redbubble contended this was not the behaviour exhibited by ordinary consumers who, for example, spent on average spent less than four minutes on the site. The other strand was the claimed short period of time the images were available on the website.

Perram and Downes JJ did not think the primary judge had erred in rejecting Redbubble’s argument. Their Honours further pointed out that, if Redbubble had wanted to prove that an image was unlikely to be found, it should have provided evidence of what a search would have revealed at the relevant time. The carousel function also contradicted the argument.

Putting aside the factual problems, their Honours considered there was a more general objection to Redbubble’s argument. This was not a case of a consumer using a general search engine like Google or Bing and having to filter results. Rather, it was a case involving a search of a specific website with specific functionality designed to facilitate locating desired iterms. Having noted the search function and the catalogue Redbubble provided were central components of its business model, their Honours at [81] rejected the argument:

one must distinguish between, on the one hand, the difficulties a consumer may encounter in finding what they are searching for on a website explicitly designed for the purpose of helping them do so and, on the other, the idea that such difficulties entail that the website is not engaged in the ordinary course of its trade. We do not think that the fact that it might be difficult to locate goods bearing infringing trade marks in a poorly laid out store can mean that the goods are not being offered for sale in the ordinary course of the trader’s business. We do not think any different principle applies to a website of the present kind.

Some other matters

Patches and badges of affiliation

At [226], Perram and Downes JJ appeared to suggest that the use of the Hell’s Angels trade mark as “patches” on jackets and the like to indicate exclusive membership of the club would not be use as a trade mark. Pointing out that there may be trade mark use where the sign serves dual purposes, Nicholas, Burely and Rofe JJ at [255] expressly reserved that proposition for future consideration.

Nominal damages?

It is also worth noting that the Full Federal Court rejected Greenwood J’s award of $8,250 as nominal damages (if indeed it was nominal) on the basis that such an amount could never be considered “nominal”, whether it was calculated as $750 per infringement or as $8,250 on a global basis.

After reviewing the amounts that had been awarded in other cases as nominal damages, the Full Federal Court at [127] awarded the sum of $20 per infringement making, in total, $100.

Given the error in calculating the damages, the award of additional damages ($70,000) was also set aside since the amount awarded as damages was relevant to that assessment even if the amount awarded as additional damages did not need to be proportionate.

Most of the factors listed in s 126(2) did not support an award of additional damages and, while there was a ‘mild’ need for general deterrence, the trivial quantum of infringements led to no additional damages being awarded.

Redbubble Ltd v Hells Angels Motorcycle Corporation (Australia) Pty Limited [2024] FCAFC 15

  1. Most recently confirmed by the High Court in Self Care IP Holdings Pty Ltd v Allergan Australia Pty Ltd [2023] HCA 8; 171 IPR 120 at [22] to [25].  ?
  2. See also Christian v Société Des Produits Nestlé SA (No 2) [2015] FCAFC 153; 327 ALR 630 at [78]. An approach recognising that, as a website on a server overseas is accessible by anyone in Australia with an internet connection, the trade mark owner’s rights would be set at nought if infringement could be avoided simply by setting up a website on the internet while at the same time the owner’s rights (and the Court’s powers of enforcement) are territorially limited: Lifestyle Equities CV v Amazon UK Services Ltd [2024] UKSC 8 at [3].  ?
  3. The emphasis is the Full Federal Court’s at [47].  ?
  4. I am not aware of any decided cases on the interpretation of this provision. In the meantime, my attempt to understand it can be found in Warwick A Rothnie, ‘Unparalled importing and trademarks in Australia,’ (2020) 21(3) Business Law International 229 (behind a paywall I’m afraid).  ?

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Pokemon v Redbubble: the DMCA doesn’t apply Down Under

1 Comment / Copyright, Trade Practices / / / , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Pagone J has awarded Pokémon $1 in damages and 70% of its costs from Redbubble for misleading or deceptive conduct and copyright infringement. An interesting aspect of the case is that Redbubble’s implementation of a notice and take down scheme under the DMCA didn’t save it from liability, but did influence the ruling on remedies.[1]

Redbubble provides a print on demand online market place by which artists can upload their works to the Redbubble website and purchasers can then buy the artworks or designs applied to desired products such as t-shirts, cups and the like. A person uploading a work to the marketplace warrants that he or she has the relevant intellectual property rights and indemnified Redbubble against infringement claims.

The evidence showed Google searches in which paid (sponsored) and organic search results listing “Pokémon” products such as t-shirts bearing Pokemon’s Pikachu character[2] which could be ordered from the Redbubble site. The sponsored links were paid for and arranged by Redbubble through the Google Merchant Centre and the products themselves were offered for sale through Google Shopping. From the tenor of the judgment, I think that the designs were uploaded by third parties, but Redbubble arranged the “fulfillers” who printed and shipped the t-shirts (and other products) with the designs printed on them.

Pagone J found that Pokémon owned the copyright in the images of the Pokémon characters depicted on the various products in evidence. Further, the images were uploaded without Pokemon’s consent.

Pagone J found therefore that Redbubble had infringed Pokemon’s copyright and misrepresented, contrary to sections 18[3] and 29(1)(g) and (h) of the Australian Consumer Law, that the products were official or authorised Pokémon products.

In finding that there had been misrepresentations that the products were sponsored or approved by Pokémon, Pagone J referred, amongst other things, to the fact that the “sponsored” links did include the word “sponsored” (although this meant in fact that the products were sponsored by Redbubble, not Pokemon). His Honour also found significance in the fact that:

There was nothing on the Redbubble website to inform the consumer that there was no connection, authorised or otherwise, between Redbubble on the one hand and [Pokemon] (or any other entity authorised to exploit Pokémon products) on the other.

Copyright subsistence and ownership

Pokémon was able to prove it owned the copyright in the artistic works through the evidence of its attorney responsible for obtaining copyright registration in the USA. Although the attorney, Mr Monahan, had not been personally present when any works were created, Pagone J considered his evidence sufficient. At 36, his Honour said:

…. He conceded in cross?examination that he had not stood over the shoulder of any creator and, therefore, that he did not have direct eyewitness, or other direct, knowledge beyond that gained from “detailed consultation with the client” but that “with respect to each series of the cards, [he had] consult[ed] with the client to determine which – for instance, which Japanese card they derive[d] from, or [… where] the artwork comes from”. His specific and direct evidence was that of consulting with the client to determine that the works were made by the Japanese company and were made as the Japanese card, although, as mentioned, he did not fly personally to Japan and had not been witness to the creation process. It had been his specific professional responsibility to obtain and secure registrations in accordance with lawful entitlements and requirements. He was confident in that context of his conclusion that the Pikachu work was not a copy based upon an animation cell because of his experience over many years of consulting with the client as his professional obligations and legal duties. In specific response in cross?examination about being confident in giving evidence that the pose of Pikachu was not derivative of any other pose already published, Mr Monahan said that every investigation he had done about the card making process enabled him to say that the cards were generated on their own and were not derivative of the animation, “common poses notwithstanding”.[4]

Further, unlike Perram J in Dallas Buyer’s Club, Pagone J also accepted that the certificate of copyright registration in the USA identifying Pokémon as the claimant to copyright ownership was sufficient to enliven the presumption under s 126B(3) of the Copyright Act. (Given the history of the provision recounted by his Honour, one might think this should not be too controversial: afterall, how many other countries out there have a copyright registration system?)

Copyright infringement

Pagone J then held that Redbubble had infringed the copyright in three ways. First, his Honour held that Redbubble infringed by communicating the infringing images from its website. Although the images were uploaded by third parties, Redbubble made the communication for the purposes of [s 22(6)][22]: Pagone J distinguished Redbubble’s position from that of ISPs like iiNet at [48]:

In the present case Redbubble does not provide the content of the communications in the sense of being the originator of any of the 29 images on its website said to be infringements of the Pikachu work. In each case the originator was the artist who had placed the image on the Redbubble website. Redbubble, however, was responsible for determining that content through its processes, protocols and arrangements with the artists. Redbubble’s position is not like that of an internet provider. Redbubble is the host of the website with the infringing material. It has a user agreement with artists which deals with matters including the possibility of infringing materials, an IP policy, and a team dedicated to deal with impermissible content.

Secondly, offering the products for sale online was sufficient to enliven s 38 which, amongst other things, extends to exhibiting “infringing” articles in public by way of trade.

Although there appear to have been some rather unspecific complaints about copyright infringement by Pokémon between 2012 and 2014,[5] Pagone J found that Redbubble knew, or ought reasonably have known, that the products were infringing from the date of the letter of demand from Pokémon’s external solicitors on 25 November 2015.[6]

Thirdly, Pagone J held that Redbubble had infringed Pokemon’s copyright by authorising the manufacture of the infringing products when orders for their purchase were placed.

In this respect, it is worth noting that Redbubble had implemented and acted on a notice and takedown system under the (US) DMCA.[7] Pagone J recognised, therefore, that Redbubble did not expressly authorise infringement and took conscious, considered and reasonable steps, both proactively and responsively, to prevent infringements.[8] These, however, were not enough. At [67], his Honour said:

The business established by Redbubble carried the inherent risk of infringement of copyright of the kind complained of by [Pokemon]. It is true that Redbubble sought to mitigate the risk, but it was an inevitable incident of the business, as Redbubble chose to conduct it, that there were likely to be infringements. It could have prevented them by taking other steps but for business reasons Redbubble chose to deal with the risk of infringement by a process that enabled the infringements to occur. Such infringements were embedded in the system which was created for, and adopted by, Redbubble. There may have been a sound commercial basis for Redbubble to manage the risks of infringement as it did, but in doing so it authorised the infringements which occurred.

Remedies

Pokémon sought $44,555.84 in damages by way of lost royalties for the consumer law breaches and only nominal damages for copyright infringement. As already noted, however, Pagone J awarded only $1 in total.

The evidence did not establish that sales made by Redbubble were lost sales by Pokémon. There was, for example, no evidence that many of the sales were sales of kinds of products sold by Pokémon or its licensees. For example, his Honour said:

…. Many of the items sold through the Redbubble website involved a “mash up” of images, such as the combination of Pikachu and Homer Simpson. The finding of an infringing use of a work, or an impermissible representation in trade, does not necessarily lead to the conclusion that the sale made by the infringement or upon the misrepresentation was necessarily a sale that would have been made by the wronged party. The unreliability of such an assumption in this case can be seen from the fact that the infringements were in the use of the image in mash ups in, and in items that were not sold or authorised for sale by [Pokemon]. ….

Given the notice and take down processes put in place by Redbubble, Pagone J was not prepared to find the infringements were “flagrant”, warranting the award of additional damages under s 115(4)

Pokémon Company International, Inc. v Redbubble Ltd [2017] FCA 1541

  1. Implementation and compliance with the DMCA scheme explicitly affected the ruling on additional damages.  ?
  2. Even if you haven’t played it, you must have seen all those people milling around in parks at lunchtime trying to “capture” these imaginary Pokémon Go “critters”. Pokemon itself has an even longer history. There are also trading card games and a successful television series which has been broadcast in Australia since 2000 and distributed on over 57,000 DVDs.  ?
  3. If you are not sweltering in the southern summer sun, s 18 provides “A person must not, in trade or commerce, engage in conduct that is misleading or deceptive or is likely to mislead or deceive.” And s 29(1)(g) and (h) prohibit making false or misleading representations in trade or commerce about sponsorship, affiliation or approval.  ?
  4. Curiously, at [44] (when discussing ownership by proof of a certificate), his Honour also said Pokémon had not proved ownership on the basis of authorship.  ?
  5. In fact, Pagone J subsequently found that Redbubble did in fact remove listings when Pokemon notified it that they were infringing.  ?
  6. It is less than clear from the judgment what action Redbubble took in response to the letter of demand. Ordinarily, one would assume that it had continued engaging in the infringing conduct but that seems a bit surprising given Pagone J records that Redbubble did comply with other take down notices once the subject of complaint had been properly identified.  ?
  7. The DMCA, being US legislation, does not provide protection from infringement in Australia under the Australian Copyright Act 1968. Redbubble also purported to operate under the corresponding Australian provisions ss116AA – 116AJ but, of course, it is not a carriage service provider and so they do not apply either.  ?
  8. Cf. esp. Section 36(1A)(c)[s36].  ?

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$150,001 damages for infringing compatibility chart

Leave a Comment / Copyright, Enforcement / / / , , , , , , , ,

Tonnex was found to have infringed Dynamic’s copyright in its printer cartridge compatibility chart. That finding was upheld on appeal. Now, Yates J has ordered Tonnex to pay Dynamic $150,001.00 in damages. The damages are comprised of compensatory damages under s115(2) of $1.00 and $150,000 by way of additional damages under s115(4).

The $1.00 nominal damages was agreed by the parties before the hearing. Interestingly, Yates J did not comment on this.[1]

Dynamic had argued for an award of additional damages of $400,000; Tonnex, while denying any award should be made, argued for an amount in the “tens of thousands”. Yates J arrived at $150,000 in the exercise of his Honour’s evaluative judgment.

Yates J’s reasons contain a useful summary of the applicable principles for the court to decide whether it is appropriate to award additional damages at [37] – [53].

Recognising that flagrancy is not required before an award of additional damages can be made, his Honour nonetheless found that the infringement was deliberate and studied. Although Tonnex’ directors denied knowledge of the copying and gave evidence that they had specifically instructed there was to be no copying,[2] the knowledge and acts of the employees involved – who included the National Marketing Manager – were at [101] relevantly the acts and knowledge of Tonnex. Further, Tonnex’ position throughout had not just been reliance on legal advice that copyright could not subsist in such a compilation. It had hi-handedly denied any copying at all.

Yates J also noted that, even if the directors were innocent of infringing knowledge, the situation should have changed after detailed particulars of infringement had been served (albeit late in the picture). Those particulars appear to have identified mistakes and other typographical peculiarities in the Tonnex catalogue which were really consistent only with copying from Dynamic. In other words, the directors were put on inquiry.

Instead, Tonnex sent out 38,000 emails with links to its infringing catalogue after Dynamic notified its infringement claims to it; only stopping just before the liability trial:

…. The cessation of Tonnex’s conduct was taken at a time of its own choosing, without regard to Dynamic’s rights. Regardless of Mr Solomon’s and Mr Kozman’s state of knowledge in that period, by reason of Mr Rendell’s knowledge, Tonnex must be taken to have known the true position regarding its copying of Dynamic’s Compatibility Chart. With that knowledge, it undoubtedly took commercial advantage of its wrongful conduct.

Tonnex did introduce an approvals process to vet material before it was published in future. Yates J was not particularly satisfied by this. His Honour was also concerned that Tonnex’ witnesses did not really exhibit appropriate contrition, but rather saw the litigation as a tactic by Dynamic rather than vindication of its rights.

The need to mark the court’s disapproval of Tonnex’ conduct and signal to the community that it was not alright to copy others’ property with impunity (i.e. deterrence) also played roles.

Dynamic Supplies Pty Limited v Tonnex International Pty Limited (No 3) [2014] FCA 909

  1. Contrast the apparent questioning of the practice raided by French and Kiefel JJ in [Venus Adult Films v Fraseride][venus] at [94].  ?
  2. it is fair to say his Honour expressed a degree of scepticism towards this evidence at esp. [102] and [103].  ?

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