The High Court has restrained Global Closing Room Limited from using the name or sign “Global Closing Room” pending the trial of a trademark dispute brought by Aviareto Limited. The interlocutory order protects Aviareto’s registered EU trademark, “Closing Room”; it does not determine the parties’ ultimate rights or the validity of that mark.
Aviareto says the defendant’s name infringes its trademark and its unregistered rights. The defendant denies the substance of the claim and counterclaims that Aviareto’s mark is invalid or partly invalid. The judge found that both the claim and counterclaim raise serious issues for trial.
Aviareto operates the International Registry of Mobile Assets in Aircraft Equipment and developed its Closing Room platform to let users arrange transactions before registration. The judgment says the platform has been live since 2015 and that up to 75% of registry transactions used it in 2020. Global Closing Room was incorporated in August 2019 and applied to register its name as an EU trademark the following month.
The court considered whether damages could adequately compensate either party while the case proceeds. It gave weight to Aviareto’s registered property right and to evidence that security weaknesses alleged in Global Closing Room’s website could pose a risk to Aviareto’s reputation. The defendant disputed that assessment but provided no expert evidence to answer the plaintiff’s IT expert. The judge concluded that damages would not be an adequate remedy for Aviareto, while the defendant’s potential losses from rebranding would largely be financial and compensable.
The judge also considered delay. She found that Aviareto had delayed after becoming aware of the defendant’s use of its mark, but said the evidence did not establish clearly when the defendant began trading or when Aviareto should have known of its activity. The delay did not, in her view, make an injunction inequitable. She said the defendant had deliberately launched under a name bearing a striking similarity to the registered mark, despite knowing of the mark and the likelihood that Aviareto would protect it.
The order is limited to the period before trial: it restrains trademark infringement and the defendant’s use of the “Global Closing Room” name or sign. The judge did not order the company to cease trading or decide the request for permanent relief. The parties were given 14 days to make written submissions on the order’s form and the costs of the application.