Antonio Munoz Y Cia SA and Another v Frumar Ltd and Another

JurisdictionEngland & Wales
Judgment Date26 March 1999
Date26 March 1999
CourtChancery Division

Chancery Division

Before Mr Justice Laddie

Antonio Munoz Y Cia SA and Another
and
Frumar Ltd and Another

Common agricultural policy - identification of grapes - no right to sue on use of different name

No right to sue on grape names

No recital in the relevant EEC Council Regulations, relating to the identification of grapes, had the effect of enabling a plaintiff, owning property rights in a particular strain, to sue a defendant who marketed that strain under a different name.

Mr Justice Laddie so held in the Chancery Division, in dismissing an action by the plaintiffs, Antonio Munoz Y Cia SA and Superior Fruiticola SA, against Frumar Ltd and Redbridge Produce Marketing Ltd, in which Munoz sought, inter alia, to enjoin Frumar from selling "Superior Seedless" grapes under the names "White Seedless", "Sult" or "Coryn".

Those Council Regulations, made with the objectives set out in article 39 and under articles 42 and 43 of the EC Treaty, were Regulations 1035/72/EEC (OJ 1972 L118/1), 823/87/EEC (OJ 1987 L84/59), 1730/87/EEC (OJ 1987 L163/25), 291/92/EEC (OJ 1992 L31/25), 2081/92/EEC (OJ 1992 L208/1) and 2200/96/EC (OJ 1996 L297/1)

Mr Martin Howe, QC and Miss Charlotte May for Munoz; Mr Mark Platts Mills, QC, for Frumar.

MR JUSTICE LADDIE said that Munoz held exclusive rights to grow and harvest in Spain "Superior Seedless" grapes ("SS"), a strain developed in the 1980s by Superior Farming Inc of USA, under a Spanish patent.

Frumar sold seedless grapes in the United Kingdom under the names "White Seedless", "Sult" and "Coryn"...

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