The inventors of a novel ‘flying shark’ toy, which moves through the air by wiggling its body and flapping its tail like a real fish, have triumphed in a High Court patent dispute and successfully blocked a rival product from the market.
The helium-filled flying shark was invented, marketed and patented by company A, which objected when a flying fish toy, dubbed a ‘mega flier’, appeared on toy shop shelves. Company B, which devised and imported the mega flier, denied that it fell within the ambit of the two patents protecting the flying shark and argued that the patents were in any event invalid.
The Court accepted that aspects of one of the patents were invalid in that they were obvious or did not involve inventive steps. However, in emphasising the novelty of the way in which the flying shark moves realistically without propellers, the Court found that both patents were infringed by the mega flier.
Company B had earlier conceded that the mega flier infringed three registered community designs in respect of the flying shark. It had agreed to submit to an injunction, damages and other relief so that the mega flier had been forcibly removed from the market.