Torts Lecture 4

Business & Economic Torts

 Passing off
The tort of passing off protects the goodwill of a
trader from misrepresentation.
The law of passing off prevents one trader from
misrepresenting goods or services as being the
goods and services of another, and also prevents a
trader from holding out his or her goods or
services as having some association or connection
with another when this is not true.
 Unfair competition
A deceptive business practice that causes
economic harm to other businesses or to
consumers. It includes a number of areas of law
involving acts by one competitor or group of
competitors which harm another in the field, and
which may give rise to civil causes of action.
 Competition law

Promotes or seeks to maintain market

competition by regulating anti-competitive
conduct by companies.
Known as "antitrust law" in the United States
Prohibits agreements or practices that restrict free
trading and competition between business in
particular the repression of free trade caused by
cartels.
 Trade libel
defined as the publication of a false statement of
fact that is an intentional disparagement of the
quality of the services or products of the plaintiff's
business and that result in pecuniary damages to
the plaintiff.
Fraud
Fraud (tort)
Making of a false representation by one party with
an intention to induce another party into an act
of commission or omission owing to which the
later party suffers a damage. The first Party may
or may not be the benefited by the damage
caused to second party. Also, the first party need
not be in collusion with someone who actually
benefited.
Tortious interference
Tortious Interference
Tortious interference, also known as intentional
interference with contractual relations, in the
common law of torts, occurs when one person
intentionally damages someone else's contractual or
business relationships with a third party causing
economic harm. For example, someone could use
blackmail to induce a contractor into breaking a
contract or they could obstruct someone's ability to
honor a contract with a client by deliberately
refusing to deliver necessary goods.
Conspiracy (civil)
Conspiracy (civil)
A civil conspiracy or collusion is an agreement between two or
more parties to deprive a third party of legal rights or deceive a
third party to obtain an illegal objective. A conspiracy may also
refer to a group of people who make an agreement to form a
partnership in which each member becomes the agent or
partner of every other member and engage in planning or
agreeing to commit some act. It is not necessary that the
conspirators be involved in all stages of planning or be aware of
all details. Any voluntary agreement and some overt act by one
conspirator in furtherance of the plan are the main elements
necessary to prove a conspiracy. A conspiracy may exist whether
legal means are used to accomplish illegal results, or illegal
means used to accomplish something legal.
Restraint of Trade
Definition
Restraint of trade is a common law doctrine relating to
the enforceability of contractual restrictions on freedom
to conduct business. It is a precursor of modern
competition law. In an old leading case of Mitchel v
Reynolds (1711) Lord Smith LC said,
it is the privilege of a trader in a free country, in all matters
not contrary to law, to regulate his own mode of carrying
it on according to his own discretion and choice. If the law
has regulated or restrained his mode of doing this, the law
must be obeyed. But no power short of the general law
ought to restrain his free discretion.
Defamation
Definitions
• Defamation—also calumny, vilification, and
traducement—is the communication of a false
statement that harms the reputation of an individual
person, business, product, group, government, religion,
or nation.
• Under common law, to constitute defamation, a claim
must generally be false and must have been made to
someone other than the person defamed. Some common
law jurisdictions also distinguish between spoken
defamation, called slander, and defamation in other
media such as printed words or images, called libel.
Invasion of privacy
Definition
the intrusion into the personal life of another, without
just cause, which can give the person whose privacy
has been invaded a right to bring a lawsuit for
damages against the person or entity that intruded.
A non-public individual has a right to privacy from: a)
intrusion on one's solitude or into one's private
affairs; b) public disclosure of embarrassing private
information; c) publicity which puts him/her in a
false light to the public; d) appropriation of one's
name or picture for personal or commercial
advantage.
Abuse of process
Abuse of Process
Abuse of process is a cause of action in tort
arising from one party making misusing or
perversion of regularly issued court process (civil
or criminal) not justified by the underlying legal
action. It is a common law intentional tort. It is
to be distinguished from malicious prosecution,
another type of tort that involves misuse of the
public right of access to the courts.
 Elements
(1) the existence of an ulterior purpose or motive
underlying the use of process, and
(2) some act in the use of the legal process not
proper in the regular prosecution of the
proceedings.[
Different from Malicious Prosecution
Abuse of process can be distinguished from
malicious prosecution, in that abuse of process
typically does not require proof of malice
Malicious prosecution
Malicious prosecution is a common law intentional
tort, while like the tort of abuse of process, its
elements include (1) intentionally (and maliciously)
instituting and pursuing (or causing to be instituted or
pursued) a legal action (civil or criminal) that is (2)
brought without probable cause and (3) dismissed in
favor of the victim of the malicious prosecution. In
some jurisdictions, the term "malicious prosecution"
denotes the wrongful initiation of criminal
proceedings, while the term "malicious use of process"
denotes the wrongful initiation of civil proceedings.
 Uses of Malicious Prosecution
the tort of malicious prosecution protects the
right of defendants to be free of frivolous lawsuits
brought by malicious plaintiffs.
Nuisance
Nuisance defined
Nuisance (from archaic nocence, through Fr. noisance, nuisance, from
Lat. nocere, "to hurt") is a common law tort. It means that which causes
offence, annoyance, trouble or injury. A nuisance can be either public
(also "common") or private. A public nuisance was defined by English
scholar Sir J. F. Stephen as,
"an act not warranted by law, or an omission to discharge a legal duty,
which act or omission obstructs or causes inconvenience or damage to
the public in the exercise of rights common to all Her Majesty's
subjects".
Private nuisance is the interference with the right of specific people.
Nuisance is one of the oldest causes of action known to the common
law, with cases framed in nuisance going back almost to the beginning
of recorded case law. Nuisance signifies that the "right of quiet
enjoyment" is being disrupted to such a degree that a tort is being
committed.
Nuisance (example)
Nuisance defined
Nuisance (from archaic nocence, through Fr. noisance,
nuisance, from Lat. nocere, "to hurt") is a common law
tort. A nuisance can be either public (also "common") or
private. A public nuisance is
"an act not warranted by law, or an omission to discharge a
legal duty, which act or omission obstructs or causes
inconvenience or damage to the public in the exercise of
rights common to all Her Majesty's subjects".
Private nuisance is the interference with the right of specific
people. Nuisance signifies that the "right of quiet
enjoyment" is being disrupted to such a degree that a tort
is being committed.
 Intellectual property torts
Intellectual property that includes intangible
creations of the human intellect

Infringement of copyrights, patents, and

trademarks,
 Patent infringement
Patent infringement typically is caused by using or
selling a patented invention without permission
from the patent holder. The scope of the patented
invention or the extent of protection is defined in
the claims of the granted patent.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., et al. v. Apple Inc.

 Copyright infringement
Copyright infringement is reproducing,
distributing, displaying or performing a work, or
to make derivative works, without permission
from the copyright holder, which is typically a
publisher or other business representing or
assigned by the work's creator. It is often called
"piracy".
 Trademark infringement
Trademark infringement occurs when one party
uses a trademark that is identical or confusingly
similar to a trademark owned by another party, in
relation to products or services which are identical
or similar to the products or services of the other
party. Registering a trademark provides legal
advantages for enforcement
 Trade secret misappropriation

A trade secret is information that

is not generally known to the public;
confers economic benefit on its holder because the
information is not publicly known; and
where the holder makes efforts to maintain its
secrecy.
 Misappropriation
Reverse engineering
Industrial espionage
Employee poaching
Tort of Conversion
Elements of conversion
1) Intent to convert the tangible or intangible
property of another to one's own possession
and use,
2) The property in question is subsequently
converted
 Steps in Conversion (1)
Depriving owner of possession

The exercise of ownership over property may take

a number of forms. All that is required is that the
defendant exercise control over the chattel in a
manner inconsistent with the plaintiff's right of
possession
 Steps in Conversion (2)
A person who accepts the possession of personal
property from one not authorized to transfer it
may be regarded as a converter.
 Steps in Conversion (3)
An action for conversion may be predicated upon
an improper disposal, removal, transportation,
delivery, or transfer of possession of property to
one not authorized by the owner to receive the
property.[
 Steps in Conversion (4)
A common conversion is a refusal to surrender
possession of the chattel to one who is entitled to
it. Normally, this is judged to be a sufficiently
serious interference with the plaintiff’s right of
control
Trespass to Chattels
Actionable Per Se.
Trespass to chattels is an intentional interference
with another person's lawful possession of a
personal property. A "chattel" refers to any
personal property.
 Elements of Trespass
Intent, Actual harm & Lack of consent

Includes killing or beating of animals, throwing

stones to vehicles, shooting birds, writing names
or scratching on the seats of buses and trains etc.
 Defenses

Abandonment
Authority of law
Consent or approbation.
Delay in bringing action.
Fraud of the plaintiff.
Interest of defendant.
Value of property.
Nonexistence or lack of identity of property
 Remedies
Legal

Equitable