The dispute over how much money must be paid by bread company Brennans to rival firm, McCambridge, over a brown bread product sold in “confusingly similar” packaging has been settled at the Commercial Court on undisclosed terms.
The settlement was announced to Mr Justice Peter Charleton yesterday afternoon but no details were revealed.
The judge, who had conducted a hearing earlier this month concerning the correct approach to be taken when adjudicating an account of profits when a defendant is found liable for passing off, delivered a detailed judgment yesterday concerning that issue.
McCambridge had claimed Brennans made profits of more than €600,000 from sales of the wholewheat product wrapped in the disputed packaging but Brennans insisted the profit sum was considerably smaller that that.
Last month, the Commercial Court heard the brown bread product at the centre of the legal battle was actually manufactured by another company, Doyle’s Quality Products Ltd, and delivered fully packaged to Brennans.
Brennans said it would account to McCambridge for any profits earned by Doyle’s relating to the product without the need to join Doyle’s to the case.
McCambridge initiated its action three years ago against Joseph Brennan Bakeries, alleging the defendant was selling the product in packaging confusingly similar to McCambridge’s stone-ground wholewheat bread product.
McCambridge’s won in the High Court and, in July 2012, the Supreme Court dismissed Brennans’ appeal by a four/one majority and ordered it to change the packaging on the product at issue.
