Passing off and trademark law.......................................................
A cause of action for passing off is a form of intellectual property enforcement against the unauthorised use of a mark which is considered to be similar to another party's registered or unregistered trademarks, particularly where an action for trademark infringement based on a registered trade mark is unlikely to be successful (due to the differences between the registered trademark and the unregistered mark). Passing off is a form of common law, whereas statutory law such as the United Kingdom Trade Marks Act 1994 provides for enforcement of registered trademarks through infringement proceedings.
Passing off and the law of registered trademarks deal with overlapping factual situations, but deal with them in different ways. Passing off does not confer monopoly rights to any names, marks, get-up or other indicia. It does not recognize them as property in its own right.
Instead, the law of passing off is designed to prevent misrepresentation in the course of trade to the public, for example, that there is some sort of association between the business of defendant and that of the claimant. Another example of passing off is where the defendant does something so that the public is misled into thinking the activity is associated with the claimant, and as a result the claimant suffers some damage, under the law of passing off it may be possible for the claimant to initiate action against the defendant.
Influences
Passing off is a common law tort which can be used to enforce unregistered trademark rights. The tort of passing off protects the goodwill of a trader from a misrepresentation that causes damage to goodwill.
The law of passing off prevents one person from misrepresenting his or her goods or services as being the goods and services of the claimant, and also prevents one person from holding out his or her goods or services as having some association or connection with the plaintiff when this is not true.
Announcement for the loyal fans of Dirty DC
Over the past 12 months we've endured a lot of personal problems and increasing family commitments which included some ill health to members of Dirty DC and their families.
Gigging most weekends plus working during the week left us with limited, if not, no time to sort these problems out and now they need our utmost attention.
The situation left us with no choice but to have a hiatus period where we could get treatment, repair what's broken and regain some of our composure.
We hope you will understand what we..re going through at this difficult time even though we've tried to maintain some sort of dignity throughout it all. The friendships we've made over the last ten years have been unbelievable, and the support overwhelming.
Being huge AC/DC fans we would like to say thanks to them ourselves.
I hope our expression of esteem to AC/DC met with your approval as it did with so many fans.
Finally, this is a farewell
Thank you
Paul Sticca
Dirty DC
Listen.......................
I..ve had to make a move which i hope i never thought i would
but today i found out that paul alwin (a former member who quit 2 years ago) was trying to book gigs under the Dirty DC name, which i registered, and even went to the extreme of telling the venue that Paul Sticca (me) was a "fraudster" and "not to believe anything i said".
I..m sorry but because of this i..ve had to shutdown the website and will shutdown the MySpace site and also the forum on legal advice i..ve taken. Which also inculuded that I..m not to contact anyone until further notice.
Thanks Paul for this, i was hoping to carry this on but it cant be right to have a former member "passing off" as Dirty DC when there are so many personal problems that need attention.
Until further notice I bid you adieu
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passing_off
Packing me boots, stringing me guitars and getting ready for the next two weeks. Don't be frightened to shout out any songs off the album you want to hear and don't forget the crazier you are the crazier we are.
Look forward to seeing you in the asylum at the end of the tour.
Alreet Lads? Looking forward to opening for you on Friday at The Standard! It's our last gig before we go to SXSW in Texas. Hoping you'll play Rock and Roll train......
Hey boys! You did a very good job last nite, at the launch party for the AC/DC photo exhibition! I don't normally dig tribute acts...but you guys are BRILLIANT! It was nice to see lotsa rock fans there, as Alex Proud stated, it's mostly Indie acts playing there. I thought the whole nite was great, including hearing all those old rock trax from the 60s and 70s. Hope you come over to me now and say hello? !! Do you ever do 'NERVOUS SHAKEDOWN' in your setlist? I was calling for it !! Dolores x
