Protecting Your Company's Intellectual Property: A Practical Guide to Trademarks, Copyrights, Patents & Trade Secrets

Forms of Unfair Competition

The most common forms of unfair competition include false advertising, product disparagement, passing off, and violations of the right of publicity. Other types of unfair competition include trademark dilution (discussed in Chapter 6) and infringement of trade dress (discussed in Chapter 2).

False Advertising

Until passage of Section 43(a) of the Lanham Act, generally only consumers who were induced to buy goods by a false statement could bring an action for false advertising. Manufacturers who were injured by false advertising by their competitors generally could not recover for such acts. However, Section 43(a) makes it clear that any person who uses any word, name, symbol, or device, any false designation of origin, ...