A luxury home textiles company advised by Blackburn-based commercial law firm Taylors Solicitors has successfully seen off a copyright infringement claim from a minority shareholder of Arley House by Barry Ward who is a well-known fabric designer.  Arley House, an independent, boutique design house based in Ashley, near Altrincham, specialises in creating luxury fabric designs for the commercial and residential markets.

Mr Ward alleged that he owned more than 60 designs that he created for Arley House, and that the company had no right to use them.

Following service of a robust defence and counterclaim by Taylors, Mr Ward accepted that copyright in the six best-selling designs was owned outright by Arley House and that it had a perpetual, royalty-free licence to make and sell the rest of the designs that Mr Ward had created for the company. As part of the arrangement, Mr Ward also agreed to transfer his minority shareholding in Arley House to its managing director Adrian Tratalos.

Tony Catterall, head of Taylors’ intellectual property team and an internationally-recognised authority on copyright, said: “We are very pleased that our advice to stand up to Mr Ward and fight this claim was fully justified. We were instructed after other solicitors advised that the company had a weak case.”

Adrian Tratalos, Managing Director of Tratalos said: “We have achieved a result that goes well beyond our initial expectations, and we are delighted with the outcome, which enables us to continue marketing many of our successful designs that had been put in jeopardy by the claimant’s unfounded allegations in these proceedings.”