Dasty makes short shrift of Dasti with ex parte order

Italian manufacturer of cleaning products Dasty sells degreaser Dasty through retail chain Wibra. In the Netherlands, Dasty discovered imitations that were virtually indistinguishable from its own products: Dasti. Investigations showed that the counterfeit products originated from Dasty’s former distributor, producer and licensee in Turkey. After the distribution relationship was terminated, they continued production on their own and were selling these products on several European markets.

The copyright infringement is just too obvious: only the letter ‘y’ in the name has been changed into an “i”. But the rest – the bottle, its contents, the label – is exactly the same. In this clear-cut case of infringement of Dasty’s rights the Preliminary Relief Judge issued a pan-European ex parte prohibition against the Dutch distributors, and the Dutch stocks were impounded. This lightning-fast response meant that large-scale infringement all over Europe was prevented. Separate proceedings are now pending in Turkey against the former licensee.

Daan van Eek represented Dasty in these proceedings