JURY -- ACJ-003, Preliminary Decision (JN-007)

Today the Jury issued a preliminary decision in ACJ-003. An excerpt follows:

The Questions submitted by El Reto were:

(i) Is a Competitor permitted to employ a designer who has previously been engaged by a potential challenger, without restriction on what the designer has done for the potential challenger?

Answer:

No. The Competitor is prohibited by Protocol 13.5 from engaging a Designer as defined by 1.1 (l) of the Protocol, provided that the potential challenger becomes a Competitor. If the potential challenger does not become a Competitor, there is no restriction.

In the event that the answer to (i) is no:

(ii) Is El Reto able to continue its engagement with Mr Kaiko as designer?

Answer:

Having considered the responses and submissions received from a number of parties including in particular a considerable number of affidavits presented by El Reto, and Mascalzone Latino, the Jury has decided under Rules of Procedure 6.3 that a hearing is necessary to resolve this issue.


The full text of the preliminary decision is posted here.