Irvine v Talksport Ltd [2003] EWCA Civ 423

Claimant was a famous F1 racing driver, Eddie Irvine.

Defendant, TalkSport, was a radio station who won rights to broadcast commentary of F1 races; sent out 1,000 brochures to likely advertisers attempting to get them to advertise between races.

• Brochure had picture of Eddie Irvine on front, doctored in order to show Claimant holding a radio with words ‘Talk Radio’ (former name of Defendant) on it.

Held:

• Purpose of passing off is to protect Claimant’s exclusive right to use of his reputation or goodwill.

• Therefore 3 elements of passing off are equally applicable to cases of false endorsement.

• No need for Claimant to show a specific or direct loss of business, at least in the short-term

  • suffices that misrepresentation will cause long-term damage to market value of Claimant’s endorsement