UK High Court settles Wise trademark clash

In a notable 2025 ruling from the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court, Wise Payments Limited faced off against With Wise Limited over use of the word “WISE”. The claimant, which had rebranded from TransferWise in 2021, relied on registered marks for financial services and software while alleging infringement and passing off. The defendant, trading since March 2020 in onboarding and payroll software for logistics, brought a counterclaim for passing off and challenged parts of the registrations on bad-faith grounds.

The court found medium to high similarity between the claimant’s logo mark and the defendant’s signs, establishing infringement for certain payroll and invoicing services. However, the claimant’s passing-off claim failed because the defendant was the senior user of “WISE” alone. The defendant succeeded on its passing-off counterclaim, as it had built goodwill in its specialist services and evidence showed reputational damage from customer confusion. Certain broad terms in the claimant’s specification, including “computer software”, were cut back for bad faith following SkyKick principles.

The outcome underscores that registered and unregistered rights operate independently and can produce split results. Small-business owners should run clearance searches before rebranding and keep specifications focused on genuine intended use.