References: [1616-1618] J Bridg 125, Cro Jac 468, Poph 143, 123 ER 1248
Coram: Montague J, Doderidge J
Ratio: A trader left counterfeit jewels with a factor who in turn arranged for an agent to sell them as genuine articles. The purchaser discovered the fraud, and had the agent arrested and had the money returned to him.
Held: No action lay as between the agent and the original trader. Even though the agent was innocent of the fraud, especially where the jury found no instruction from the trader to the factor to find an agent or to ask the factor to conceal the nature of the items. The factor having been authorised himself could not delegate that agency without authority from the trader.
Doderidge J: ‘An action upon the case was brought in the Common Pleas by a clothier, that whereas he had gained great reputation for his making of his cloth, and by reason whereof he had great utterance to his great benefit and profit, and that he used to set his mark to the cloth whereby it should be known to be his cloth, and another clothier perceiving it, used the same mark to his ill-made cloth on purpose to deceive him, it was resolved that an action did well lie’.
Jurisdiction: England and Wales
This case is cited by:

• Cited – Magnolia Metal Co v Tandem Smelting Syndicate Ltd ((1900) 17 RPC 477)
  ‘Going back . . as far as the reign of Elizabeth the form of action which this Statement of Claim adopts has undoubtedly been a form of action in which if the right of a man to have the reputation of selling that which is his manufacture as his . .
• Cited – British Telecommunications Plc; Virgin Enterprises Ltd; J Sainsbury Plc; Marks and Spencer Plc and Ladbroke Group Plc v One In a Million Ltd and others CA (Times 29-Jul-98, Gazette 30-Sep-98, Bailii, [1998] EWCA Civ 1272, [1999] FSR 1, [1999] 1 WLR 903, [1998] 4 All ER 476)
  Registration of a distinctive Internet domain name using registered trade marks and company names could be an infringement of a registered Trade Mark, and also passing off. It was proper to grant quia timet injunctions where necessary to stop . .

(This list may be incomplete)

Last Update: 15 June 2020
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