Defence to infringement imposes legal not evidential burden, rules court

In Sliney v London Borough of Havering, the Court of Appeal
has held that, in cases involving a criminal charge of unauthorized trademark
use, a defendant relying on the defence in Section 92(5) of the Trademarks Act
(ie, that he did not believe such use to be an infringement) is under a legal,
rather than evidential, burden to prove that the defence is made out.