Mead Corporation and Another v Riverwood Multiple Packaging Division of Riverwood International Corporation and Others
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 05 March 1997 |
| Date | 05 March 1997 |
| Court | Chancery Division |
Chancery Division
Before Mr Justice Laddie
Patents - proceedings for infringement - joinder improper without evidence
The court had to be satisfied that there were proper grounds for alleging that foreign parties were actually involved in taking part in primary acts of infringement in the court's jurisdiction before exposing them to the expense and inconvenience of joinder in proceedings for infringement: a mere subsidiary relationship would not suffice.
Mr Justice Laddie so held in the Chancery Division, in granting an application by Riverwood International Corporation ("RIC") a company incorporated in the USA, that its name be stricken from a writ and statement of claim issued by The Mead Corporation and Mead Packaging Ltd, the plaintiffs, who sought to join as co-defendants Riverwood International Ltd ("RI") and New Materials Ltd ("NM"), two UK-resident subsidiaries of RIC.
Mr Guy Tritton for the plaintiffs; Mr George Hamer for the defendants.
MR JUSTICE LADDIE said that it was not in dispute that one or both of RI and NM had committed acts in the United Kingdom alleged to have constituted primary infringements of the first plaintiff's patent; and since it was no longer alleged that RIC had itself committed such acts, the single issue was whether RI/NM's acts had arguably been committed in furtherance of a common design between them and RIC.
The plaintiffs had relied on statements in RIC's annual report for 1994 to the effect that RIC was a "global" company offering a "one-source solution linked...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Bradley Lomas Electrolok Ltd and Another v Colt Ventilation East Asia Pte Ltd and Others
...Ltd v Suzo International (UK) Ltd [1999] Ch 33 (refd) Mead Corp v Riverwood Multiple Packaging Division of Riverwood International Corp [1997] FSR 484 (folld) Napp Pharmaceutical Group Ltd v Asta Medica Ltd [1999] FSR 370 (refd) Seaconsar Far East Ltd v Bank Markazi Jomhouri Islami Iran [19......
- Apotex Pty Ltd v Les Laboratoires Servier (No 4)
-
Cranway v Playtech Ltd and Others
...to show the combination.” In the present case, no detail has been provided at all. 23In The Mead Corporation and another v. Riverwood Multiple Packaging Division of Riverwood International Corportation [1997] FSR 484, Laddie J had to consider a similar sort of question. He was dealing with......
- Sepracor Inc. v Hoechst Marion Roussel Ltd and Others
-
Civil Procedure
...was why. according to the Court of Appeal, cases like Mead Corp v Riverwood Multiple Packaging Division of Riverwood International Corp [1997] FSR 484, Coin Controls Ltd v Suzo International (UK) Ltd[1999] Ch 33, Aubrey Max Sandman v Panasonic UK Limited[1998] FSR 651 and Napp Pharmaceutica......