The First Hall of the Civil Court, presided over by Madam Justice Abigail Lofaro, recently upheld an application filed by Unilever plc for the issue of a warrant of prohibitory injunction against Party Import-Export Ltd, to prevent this company from importing, selling and/or distributing Henkel branded Persil washing preparations in Malta.

In its application, Unilever plc claimed that since it was the registered proprietor of the trademark “Persil” in Malta, any use by third parties of this trademark constituted an infringement of its intellectual property rights in the trademark as well as unlawful competition under the relative provisions of the Commercial Codes.

This state of affairs subsisted notwithstanding the fact that Henkel KGaA was the registered proprietor of the Persil trademark in certain jurisdictions other than Malta.

The court heard that, following an agreement between Unilever plc and Henkel KGaA during the first part of the 20th century, the two companies had agreed on the jurisdictions in which either of them would hold the intellectual property rights to the trademark “Persil”, with the UK and all of its colonies and dependencies, Malta included, being assigned to Unilever plc.

The court therefore ruled that Unilever plc was entitled to stop Party Import-Export Ltd from importing, selling and/or distributing Henkel branded Persil washing preparations in Malta and upheld Unilever plc’s request for the issue of a warrant of prohibitory injunction.

Dr George Hyzler and Dr Michael Grech appeared for Unilever plc while Dr Kris Busietta and Dr Patrick Valentino represented Party Import-Export Ltd.