Brisbane Law Blog

  The principle behind the tort of “passing off” is that a person cannot represent their goods or services as those of another. The action for passing off protects business goodwill and reputation from wrongful appropriation. An action for passing requires the plaintiff to adduce evidence of the following: Goodwill or reputation in a specific industry or trade; A misrepresentation by the defendant of a connection between the defendant or the defendant’s goods or services or business and the plaintiff or the plaintiff’s business; and Damage or threat of damage. Goodwill Goodwill is an intangible property right that does not have an independent existence separate from the business to which it is attached. The plaintiff will not succeed in a passing off action unless he or she can establish distinctiveness of the indicia in question by showing that consumers identify those indicia with its goods, services or business. In order to succeed in an action in passing off, the plaintiff must...