Intellectual Property Law · The Business and Property Courts (Intellectual Property List)
Entain Operations Limited & Ors v Liquidity Trading Limited & Ors
Checked against the judgment on 11 September 2026 · how we verify
Facts
The four claimants belong to the Entain Group, one of the world's largest sports betting and gaming groups. Its brands include Coral, Ladbrokes, bwin and Sportingbet, and casino and bingo brands such as Gala, Foxy and Party Casino. The defendants are two Gibraltar companies and Mr Samuel Stoffel. They operate “matched betting” and “casino offer” websites (Outplayed, OddsMonkey, Team Profit and Team Casino), which advise customers how to profit from bookmakers' promotions and link through to those offers using the claimants' logos. The claimants sued for infringement of some 18 trade marks under section 10(1) of the Trade Marks Act 1994 and section 10(3) of the Trade Marks Act 1994. They also claimed infringement of copyright in their sports and casino logos and in extracts of their websites. The defendants rely principally on the referential use defence under section 11(2)(c) of the Trade Marks Act 1994, together with honest concurrent use and acquiescence, and counterclaim for invalidity and revocation for non-use. At a case management conference on 24 July 2026, two cross-applications had to be decided first. The defendants applied under CPR 3.4(2)(a) and/or (b) to strike out the copyright claim, as pleaded in draft Amended Particulars of Claim, for failure to plead its essential ingredients. The claimants applied under CPR 3.4(2)(a), (b) and/or (c) and CPR 16.5 to strike out three parts of the Defence and Counterclaim: its introductory narrative, its references to confusion, and conditional revocation pleas about two “Newer Marks” still within their grace periods.
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