Black cabs: not so special

A stand-off over the shape of London taxi cabs has been resolved after the High Court followed previous dicta regarding the shape of Kit Kats.

London Taxi Company (LTC), which makes the Capital’s iconic black cabs, claimed for trade mark infringement and passing off against Frazer-Nash, which they accused of copying the shape of the black cab when designing the new zero-emissions London taxi, the Metrocab. However, Mr Justice Arnold rejected this allegation, finding a low degree of similarity between the new Metrocab and LTC’s cabs. He declared the trade mark claims invalid and/or not infringed on other grounds.

Simon Clark, head of intellectual property, Berwin Leighton Paisner, who acted for Frazer-Nash, says: “This case was the first opportunity for Mr Justice Arnold to apply his interpretation of the Court of Justice’s recent ruling in the Kit Kat case by finding that people did not perceive LTC’s taxis as originating from LTC because of their shape, as opposed to any other trade mark present, such as the badge on the front of their taxis.”