Clifford Chance

Clifford Chance secures win for the Police Mutual Assurance Society in a case which broke new ground in IP law

Leading international law firm Clifford Chance has acted for Police Mutual Assurance Society (PMAS) in a case brought to the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (IPEC) by The Military Mutual Limited (MML).

MML, which arranges insurance services from third parties to members of the armed forces, brought the claim for extended passing off against PMAS and its subsidiaries (trading under the name 'Forces Mutual') in their provision of insurance also aimed at the armed forces. MML claimed that the use of the word "mutual" in Forces Mutual's trading name had caused confusion amongst the relevant public, giving a cause of action for extended form passing off. PMAS rejected these allegations.

On June 22nd 2018, the case was dismissed by the IPEC in the first ever recorded successful defence of a passing off claim. It was also the first application of the passing off law in the context of services rather than goods.

The Clifford Chance team was led from Litigation by Matthew Scully and Rob Stewart with IP support from Vanessa Marsland. Input on regulatory aspects came from Katherine Coates and Imogen Ainsworth in the Financial Institutions Group.