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Feb 17, 2010
Chris McLeod, Hammonds LLP, UK

Vodka protected by extended passing off


Chris McLeod, Hammonds LLP, UKIn Diageo v Intercontinental Brands, the High Court has ruled on an unusual case of extended passing off.

Background: Extended passing off is where suppliers of goods of a particular description bring a passing off claim to restrain rival traders from using that description, or a confusingly similar term, in relation to goods which do not correspond to that description. On this basis, the courts have prevented terms such as “Spanish champagne”, “sherry” and “Swiss chalet” from being applied to products which were not champagne, sherry from Jerez or Swiss chocolate respectively. The early cases concerned descriptions relating to the geographic origin of goods but the case of Warnink v Townend in 1979 (the ‘advocaat’ case) extended the law to cover descriptions with no geographic element. read more