Fighting Back Against Misleading Competitor Advertising: How Garmin Successfully Navigated a Route to Banning Misleading Claims by TomTom in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.
Abstract
Misleading advertising by a brand's competitors can take many forms. When it uses the 'target' brand's trade marks, and therefore falls within the narrow definition of explicit comparative advertising and potentially of trade mark infringement, the paths of legal recourse are well trodden. However, when the 'target' brand sees a rival striving to obtain a competitive advantage by making claims which it believes to be exaggerated, unsubstantiated, or otherwise misleading, but which do not use the target brand’s trade marks, its options are more limited.
