When is Ideal Not Ideal?

When the publisher of Ideal Home (IH) magazine brought a legal action for infringement of its trade mark against the Ideal Home Show (IHS), the response was a counterclaim by IHS that IH’s trade mark was invalid. Both brands had successfully traded alongside one another for many years.



The case arose because IH was concerned that Internet shoppers could confuse the two brands. The court threw out both claims, deciding that the confusion caused to online shoppers would be no more than could reasonably be expected in the circumstances.