United Distillers & Vintners (Australia) Ltd v Kingswood Distillery Pty Ltd

In the Supreme Court of Victoria, United Distillers & Vintners (Australia) Ltd (UDV) sought interlocutory injunctions against Kingswood Distillery Pty Ltd (Kingswood) to restrain alleged breaches of a licence agreement. The dispute concerned Kingswood's right to use the "Black Douglas" trade mark in relation to whisky, a right which UDV claimed had been terminated.

The primary legal issue before the court was whether Kingswood had breached the licence agreement by continuing to use the "Black Douglas" trade mark after UDV had purported to terminate the agreement. This involved determining the validity of UDV's termination notice and, consequently, the scope of Kingswood's ongoing rights, if any, to use the trade mark.

Justice McDonagh considered the terms of the licence agreement, particularly the provisions relating to termination and the consequences of breach. The court found that UDV had not established a sufficient likelihood of success on the merits to warrant the grant of interlocutory relief. Specifically, the court was not satisfied that Kingswood's actions constituted a repudiatory breach of the agreement that would entitle UDV to terminate. The court also considered the balance of convenience, noting that granting the injunction would cause significant harm to Kingswood, while refusing it would not necessarily cause irreparable harm to UDV, given the availability of damages.

Consequently, the court dismissed UDV's application for interlocutory injunctions.