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.

Brinsley Dresden, Head of Advertising Law, Lewis Silkin, United Kingdom

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.

Brinsley Dresden is a Partner at Lewis Silkin LLP and Head of Advertising and Marketing Law. Prior to joining Lewis Silkin in 1996, Brinsley was inhouse counsel at British Telecommunications plc, providing full time legal support of BT’s advertising function. For many years he has been recognised in Band 1 for Advertising & Marketing by the Chambers Directory, which in 2015 stated ‘The pre-eminent Brinsley Dresden is “correctly viewed as one of the leading advertising lawyers in the country.” Clients place particular value on his ability to diffuse crisis situations, and note that “he's really well connected and super-respected in the industry.” ’

Lewis Silkin LLP is recognised as a leading firm in the fields of Advertising & Marketing Law, with unrivalled strength in depth along with unparalleled experience of all aspects of advertising and marketing work. The firm works with a wide variety of both advertiser and agency clients, as well as technology companies, new media and digital agencies, advising on all aspects of traditional and newly emerging marketing techniques, in any media and on any platform. Lewis Silkin is the member for the United Kingdom of the Global Advertising Lawyers Alliance.