PRACTICE |
Discovery |
Anton Piller Orders |
M.M. International Business Directories Ltd. v. International Business Index
T-1049-00
Rothstein J. (ex officio)
22/8/00
7 pp.
In trade marks and copyright proceedings, motion for continuation of Anton Piller order pursuant to which documents seized from defendants; and to convert into interlocutory injunction interim injunction restraining defendants from dealing in certain data discs and data in relation to business directories--Plaintiffs publish and distribute business directory in hard copy and compact disc form--Defendants distribute business directories in compact disc form--Plaintiffs allege trade mark and copyright violations--Anton Piller order vacated and application to convert interim injunction into interlocutory injunction dismissed--Plaintiffs have clearly not established damages very serious, one of requirements for Anton Piller order: Anton Piller KG v. Manufacturing Processes Ltd., [1976] Ch. 55 (C.A.)--Plaintiffs have led no financial evidence at all--As to interlocutory injunction application, plaintiffs have failed to establish irreparable harm--Plaintiffs' only argument that defendants will not be in position to pay any damages that may be awarded plaintiffs at trial--However, in absence of evidence as to actual or potential damages, impossible to determine defendants' capacity to pay--Proof of irreparable harm must be clear and not speculative; cannot be inferred from evidence of infringement, confusion in marketplace or even evidence of loss of plaintiffs' good will: Caterpillar Inc. v. Chaussures Mario Moda Inc. (1995), 62 C.P.R. (3d) 338 (F.C.T.D.).