What is the most reputed vacuum cleaner brand in the UK? Surely Dyson, as you may say.
Meanwhile, another British brand is also highly acclaimed, Henry bucket vacuum cleaner as shown below.
The Henry Bucket Vacuum Cleaner was unintentionally created by Numatic at an exhibition in Lisbon in 1981, when bored Numatic engineers painted a smile on the latest bucket displays which proved a big surprise for customers. As such, Henry vacuum cleaner with a smile is born.
A total of 10 million units have been sold so far. Now 20,000 units are sold every week, 15% sales contributed by UK and exported to 86 countries. Mumatic has also added counterparts.
Unlike most competitors that set plants in countries such as China and Vietnam to cut costs, Numatic headquarters and makes products in Chard, Somerset of the UK.
Henry is favored so much in the UK that others inevitably follow suits. Yet noticeably, Numatic’s iconic smiley face is patented.
In 2008, Numatic’s classic smiley design patent expired, when British Qualtex UK Ltd decided to produce a replica of Henry.
In 2009, Qualtex exhibited a vacuum with similar appearance to Henry (removing the smile and eyes in positions such as the top cover and the hose) at a fair. Numatic then sued Qualtex for infringement.
Qualtex argued it was not infringement as long as the classic smile design was not applied or applied to different brand. Judge Floyd, judge of the High Court, ruled that Qualtex loss for following reasons:
Numatic’s Henry vacuum cleaner is not only a practical item, but rather a character recognized by the public. In other words, Henry’s styling is recognizable and bears more meaning (not fully functional).
Qualtex’s replicas resembles so much to Henry, despite some elements missing (such as smiley faces and red bodies)
Qualtex will not get exempted from liability of counterfeiting to sell them under the QuickClean brand, for that most consumers are unaware Henry belongs to Numatic, not to be less confused by other brands, and QuickClean is not quite recognizable or well-known.
The judge believes that Numatic undoubtedly enjoys benefits brought by a range of features of the Henry vacuum cleaner (Henry brand name, black hat top and bright base, smiley face and hose). It remains to be concluded whether replicas exhibited by Qualtex are devastatingly misleading. At last, the judge stood on Numatic’s side.
As a result, Qualtex stopped subsequent product development and no longer worked on similar products. The significance of this case lies in that definition of counterfeit products was extended, and what consumers think of the product styling got extremely valued, not just in the aspect of function.
Now let’s turn to Dyson, another British giant. Dyson sued Vax in the UK and sued Dirt Devil in France (both belong to the TTI Group) for Dyson DC02 patent infringement by Mach Zen vacuum. To the end, the British court rejected Dyson’s claim, while the French court supported Dyson’s claim.
Later, Dyson invented its new cordless vacuum cleaner, its classic V8 and V10 stylings were also copied. Will Dyson also sue the relevant counterparts for appearance similarity?
Someone said it seems alarm free as Dyson has not filed a lawsuit, which is a naïve thought as far as I am concerned. Once Dyson sued SharkNinja, and SharkNinja argued that Dyson intentionally wait until the day before Thanksgiving to bring a lawsuit to interrupt Shark’s sales plan.
Dyson has not filed a lawsuit against these brands possible for following reasons:
1.Dyson considers it not infringement
- Dyson doesn’t care
- Dyson means to sue them when their sales level gets high in consideration of more compensation.
What is your opinion?
