The Irish High Court today refused to grant an injunction to The Irish Times restraining The Times of London from using the words “The Times Irish Edition” as the name of a new digital Irish edition of the London based paper.
During the course of the proceedings, it had been argued by the Irish Times that its trademark and values of “The Irish Times” would have been blurred and diluted. The Irish Times sought to convince the High Court that sales of the digital, “The Times Irish Edition”, would also have created confusion amongst members of the Irish newspaper buying public. This argument was rejected by the High Court. Mr Justice John Hedigan said he was satisfied the evidence showed that journalists in Ireland were aware, since 2014, of the decision by the London Times to launch its Irish decision. The judge was also of the view that “The Times Irish Edition” could not be realistically launched without identifying itself as an Irish edition.
The application for injunctive relief was all the more remarkable because “The Irish Times” and “The Times” had successfully co-existed in Ireland for more than a century. Indeed, “The Times” has been sold in Ireland since 1785, long before “The Irish Times” which came into existence in 1859. The judge also noted that an Irish edition of “The Sunday Times” had been sold in Ireland since 1980. The judge stated that, in view of the long period of co-existence, the Times of London had at least an arguable case of estoppel against the Irish Times.
Ultimately, Mr Justice Hedigan refused to grant the Irish Times its injunctions on the grounds of delay in seeking them. The judge’s refusal to grant the injunctions is a timely reminder of the equitable principle of “vigilantibus non dormientibus aequitas subvenit”, otherwise known as “delay defeats equity”.
This is not the first time in Ireland that newspaper owners have battled over the masthead titles. Indeed, the case of Independent Newspapers Ltd v Irish Press Ltd, (1932) established the principle that there is no ‘copyright in a name’ and that ‘… property in the name of a business does not exist in the name per se but only per accidens’.
The newspaper industry in Ireland is highly competitive and indicative of one of the highest rates of press freedom in the world. I therefore suspect that this will not be the last time we shall see the press slugging out in the courts.