Sinnathuray J

In this action the plaintiffs claim an injunction for infringement of their registered Trade Mark. At the trial, the plaintiffs added another claim for an injunction for passing-off. The two claims are different, they have to be considered separately, and I should at the outset state what the differences are.

An action for infringement is founded on property. The plaintiffs claim to be the owners of a valid registered trade mark. The allegation made against the defendants is that they have violated the proprietary rights of the plaintiffs. In a passing-off claim, the plaintiffs allege that the defendants have wrongly represented their goods as the goods of the plaintiffs; in such a claim the plaintiffs' goods must have some sort of reputation, and there must be deception or confusion caused by the defendants' goods.

In the present case, at the conclusion of the hearing, I held that there was no evidence of passing-off. The action that was fought out was the complaint that the defendants had in their advertisements infringed the registered Trade Mark of the plaintiffs. Again, on the facts and for the reasons I give, this claim also failed.

The plaintiffs, Fraser & Neav