A mum has won a legal victory in a dispute over who created a special "anti-ageing" serum.
Georgina Tang, 60, founder of the Yours Naturally, Naturally Yours organic skincare brand, began concocting skincare products in 2013 when her son Alessio was diagnosed with cancer and lost his hair due to chemotherapy. In 2015 she created Elixir AKA Miracle in a Bottle, which she describes as an anti-ageing cream made with a unique recipe.
She supplied the product to beauticians and retailers, but a former customer's company began selling the serum under their own brand. Now Ms Tang, from Halewood, has won a four-year legal battle at the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court in Manchester, which in April ruled that Kate McIver Skin had unlawfully "passed off" Ms Tang's product as her own, and breached her copyright.
READ MORE: Adelphi Hotel owner hails record profits despite ten years as UK's 'worst chain'
The court was told Ms Tang and Ms McIver, who tragically died in March 2019 and whose bravery was hailed by the judge in the case, had first met online in May 2017, when Ms Tang read about Ms McIver's cancer battle on Facebook.
According to the judgement in the case, In October 2017 Ms McIver asked Ms Tang if she could buy Elixir wholesale and sell it under her label, but it was instead agreed that she would market the product under Ms Tang's original label. Between October 2017 and April 2018, Ms Tang continued to supply Ms McIver with the serum, made with her recipe, which Ms McIver sold to her customers.
The judgement said that in March 2018, the pair again discussed the idea of Ms McIver selling the serum under her own label. Ms Tang agreed, and between April and June 2018 Ms McIver sold the serum under a label which read "Kate McIver Elixir".
In May and June 2018 they discussed alternative arrangements for the packaging. In a message dated May 18, Ms Tang said: "Possibly say it's your own label made by an ethical, cruelty free, local company in Liverpool, what do you think? Don't mention about being exclusive because I am the creator, so copyright stays with me."
But on June 6, Ms McIver took to social media to claim ownership of the serum, adding on June 8: "I made this with my very own hands [to] remove a scar last year & yes it worked!!!!"
In a message on her Instagram account, she told her 44,800 followers about her battle with breast cancer, adding: "To get through this I needed to have a focus, something I loved, something I was obsessed with to take my mind from the pain... Kate McIver skin was born and I literally put my life and soul it too [sic] researching and training, creating bespoke treatment and tailor making the ingredients for each session meaning treatments that I could be remembered for.
"The Kate McIver serum was designed to turn my skin around to help my cells recover and rejuvenate, it also healed all my scars. Fast forward 7 months and I'm in remission, my skin and hair is healthy and glowing and it's safe to say the business is thriving."
His Honour Judge Hacon's judgement said: "I have no doubt that Ms McIver's account of the painful difficulties inflicted on her by her condition and consequent therapy were accurate. She showed her strength by the way that she dealt with those difficulties. But while her story of being driven to create a serum to cure her bad skin was presumably attractive from a marketing point of view, it was not true."
It added: "Ms McIver's statement on 6 June 2018 that she had put her life and soul into researching and creating the 'Kate McIver' serum, can only have been taken as meaning that she had created the Elixir serum she was selling.
"No alternative was suggested. Thus, Ms McIver's express representation was that she was the creator of the Elixir serum.
"By inevitable implication, she also made the further representation that she was the creator of the Elixir serum sold by anyone else, including Ms Tang. Both the express and the implied representation were false."
Ms McIver was found to have been "passing off" Ms Tang's product as her own by misrepresentation, and breaching her copyright from November 30 2018.
However, the court ruled that this did not amount to malicious falsehood, as it could not be satisfied that her claims resulted in a pecuniary loss for "Yours Naturally, Naturally Yours". Allegations of causing loss by unlawful means were also dismissed.
In the judgement, the judge stated: "At the trial the principal defence advanced on behalf of the defendants to the alleged misrepresentations turned on an unpleaded assertion about [a] meeting at Cheshire Oaks on 7 June 2018. It was said that Ms Tang must have agreed to allow Ms McIver to claim that she had created the Elixir serum and that it was entirely her product.
"Reliance was placed on Ms Tang's email of 18 May 2018, but this email is inconsistent with such an agreement: in it Ms Tang insists that she was the creator and 'copy right stays with me'. I think the alleged agreement is fanciful and did not happen."
Christopher McIver, Ms McIver's widower, was the second defendant in the proceedings as the personal representative of her estate. The judge noted: "Mr McIver did his careful and reasonable best to answer the questions. I would guess that it was emotionally difficult for Mr McIver to give evidence about such matters and that, understandably, he felt a strong duty to defend the late Ms McIver from every one of the allegations being made by Ms Tang. With that in mind, he was a good witness."
Ms Tang said: "Even now I'm free to talk about it, I find it very difficult.
"I have to say it's a great relief, because it has been very stressful. I started my legal action in 2019 and I always thought it would be sorted out of court, but that never happened. We went to court and I won fair and square. There could be only one decision by the judge."
READ NEXT
Live court updates as Connor Chapman stands trial for Elle Edwards' murder
