ABSTRACT
In the United Kingdom, the common law tort of passing off enables an enterprise to protect its business’s goodwill. Goodwill is intangible and this is why the subject falls within the intellectual property law regime. Passing off may apply in situations where trade mark protection does not apply. If a registered trade mark exists, the proprietor can sue both for trade mark infringement as well as for passing off. The concept for passing off derives from the ancient case of Perry v Truefitt (1842), which ruled that a trader must not ‘sell his own goods under the pretence that they are the goods of another man’.
