Bed Bath 'N' Table Pty Ltd v Global Retail Brands Australia Pty Ltd

Trade practices – Misleading or deceptive conduct – Where "House Bed & Bath" trade mark used as name of new soft homewares stores – Where network of stores throughout Australia sold soft homewares under trade marks including "BED BATH 'N' TABLE" since 1976 – Whether use of "House Bed & Bath" trade mark misleading or deceptive or likely to mislead or deceive in contravention of s 18(1) of Australian Consumer Law – Whether trader's wilful blindness to possibility of confusion relevant to objective question of misleading or deceptive conduct – Whether primary judge's conclusion involved material error.

Words and phrases – "appellate review", "conduct", "confusion", "context", "deceptive similarity", "deceptively similar", "distinctiveness", "evidentiary approach", "immediate and broader context", "inference", "likely to mislead or deceive", "misleading or deceptive", "objective assessment of fact", "reputation", "state of mind", "trade mark", "trade or commerce", "trader", "wilful blindness".

Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth), Sch 2, s 18(1).

Trade Marks Act 1995 (Cth), s 120(1).