Akhtar v Bhopal Productions (UK) Ltd and others

Costs – Order for costs. The claimant brought a claim for the alleged infringement by the defendants of the copyright in a film. The claimant applied to amend the particulars of claim, which was criticised by the defendants as being inadequate. A judge, dismissing the application, held that the claimant had behaved unreasonably in that the particulars of claim was wholly inadequate. The defendants sought their costs, which exceeded the £3,000 cap for applications in the Intellectual Property and Enterprise Court. The Chancery Division held that costs awarded against an unreasonable party, pursuant to CPR 63.26(2) were not free of the stage caps on costs set out in Tables A and B of Practice Direction 45. A single stage cap of £3,000 applied to all the defendants in relation to the costs of the application.