High Court rules against Cooley Distillery

The High Court has found that Cooley Distillery have caused confusion by using labelling on bottles of Irish whiskey, sold on the Russian market, similar to that of rival brand Jameson's.

Today at the High Court Mr Justice Roderick Murphy granted Irish Distillers, the makers of Jameson Irish Whiskey, an interlocutory injunction preventing Cooley from using the label on the St Patrick brand.

That order prevents Cooley from using the labels on the bottle until a full hearing of the matter can be determined by the courts.

However it is understood that Cooley may change the labels on the bottles of St Patrick Whiskey.

Irish Distillers had contend the labelling on bottles of St Patrick Irish Whiskey, which is made by Cooley Distillery in Co Louth and distributed in Russia by a company called Rotor House, are so similar it is leading customers to believe it is from the same family of products.

They say that it is an infringement of their copyright and their registered trademarks. Cooley Distillery has denied the claims.

In his judgment Mr Justice Murphy said he concluded that on the evidence and the balance of probability that a likelihood of confusion on the part of the public exists in the association of the sign of St Patrick Whiskey with the trade mark Jameson.

The Judge said that while Cooley is entitled to get the best results from its marketing strategy and to encourage distributors to include St Patrick within a range of Irish whiskey it is "not entitled to maintain similarities in labelling," that would lead to confusion with Jameson.