AN AWARD-WINNING vending company has become embroiled in a legal wrangle over ownership of intellectual property it developed.

Last Thursday, in the court of session in Edinburgh, Lord Uist granted an unopposed interdict preventing Glow Products from using the intellectual property, designed by Beautiful Vending, in any of their own machines.

He also granted an order allowing any machines assembled by Glow Products using Beautiful Vending's software to be seized.

Lawyers acting for Beautiful Vending say a wall-mounted vending machine produced by Glow Products in Edinburgh was virtually a copy of one of their own products.

The Hamilton-based company manufacture a machine which allows customers to use a pair of ceramic styling tongs at nightclubs. The units are attached to the walls of ladies' toilets in bars and nightclubs and provide each customer a minute and a half of time with the tongs for £1.

Their lawyers argued at the Court of Session in Edinburgh that Glow Products intended to copy the unit and use it as the launch product for a rival enterprise, and won an interim interdict blocking its sale.

Leading QC Paul McBride said: "A case of this sort is highly unusual and interdicts of this kind are not readily granted. However, cases like this will in the future become more and more common as individuals and businesses try and protect their rights."

Neil Mackay, Beautiful Vending's director and co-founder, said: "We invested time, energy and more than £100,000 getting our product ready for market, and it's paying off.

"But having to contend with this just as we're expanding our European customer network would have been the last thing we needed. I'm immensely relieved that we managed to catch this in time."

Mackay and partner Richard Starrett were told at the end of 2005, only a few months after they had launched Beautiful Vending, that a component supplier had been asked to build an identical device.

"We asked him to request photographs from every angle of the machine they were describing," Mackay said.

Beautiful Vending has built an international reputation on the machine's unique design, which has won numerous plaudits, including the 2007 International Vending Product of the Year award.

"Looking back it was a laughable attempt, a real botched job,'' said Mackay. "Had the people doing this been competent, the story could have been very different.'' He added: We're established now, but at the time this happened the market was brand new, and a competitor might have killed us off before we even got going."

The Beautiful Vending case is one of a growing number involving the value of intellectual property rights which companies hold over their designs, products and services. Many legal experts report a rapidly expanding portfolio of cases involving their ownership, exploitation and theft.

"We're seeing a lot more cases involving the enforcement of intellectual property rights,'' said Katrina Lumsdaine of DLA Piper.

Precise statistics are not available at the moment, but this kind of case has become increasingly common as companies seek to protect their investments."

The growth of the internet has made the situation even more complicated, as an increasing number of companies own only software. Their rights to those assets are becoming easier to register and this, combined with an increasingly litigious business environment, has led to an upsurge of court battles.

"Companies need to be aware of intellectual property issues that characterise business today and to take steps to avoid falling foul of them," said Lumsdaine.

"There are numerous brand protection services out there, but the key step is to take an inventory of your intellectual property and register any rights you may be entitled to. Once that has been done, it is far easier to monitor and enforce them."