The Federal Court of Australia has found that Technicon Industries Pty Ltd (Technicon) infringed the copyright and registered design right of Caroma Industries Ltd (Caroma) when it relied on Caroma’s Trident toilet suite design in the design of its Technicon toilet pan.

The joint CEO of Technicon directed its Chinese manufacturer to use a Caroma brochure “as a guide”. The Court found that Technicon infringed Caroma’s copyright when a Trident design drawing was substantially reproduced; Technicon’s design drawings depicted the Trident pan rather than the Technicon pan.

In Technicon’s defence, the CEO claimed that his instruction was to use the Caroma brochure merely as a guide to the brochure layout. The Court rejected the defence of innocent infringement.

As there was no finding of a blatant intention to reproduce the drawing, additional damages were not payable.

The Court also found that Technicon fraudulently imitated and therefore infringed the Trident design which Technicon knew or suspected was a registered design.

Caroma Industries Ltd v Technicon Industries Pty Ltd [2008] FCA 1465 (2 October 2008)