Ewing v Buttercup Margarine Co Ltd [1917] 2 Ch 1
Ewing ran a dairy products business called the Buttercup Dairy Company, which sold margarine in 150 shops. The shops were only in Scotland and the North of England, but Ewing had plans to expand his business to the South of England. The defendant company was registered in 1916 to carry on the business of supplying margarine wholesale. Ewing brought an action for an injunction to prevent the company trading under its registered name. The defendants suggested that, as Ewing was a retailer and they were wholesalers, there would be no confusion. In addition, as the company would only operate around London, there would be no confusion between it and a trader who only operated in the North. It was held that the injunction would be granted - although the defendants were wholesalers, the objects clause of the memorandum did give power to retail which the company might exercise in future. In addition, the plaintiff intended to expand his business into the South of England and confusion was a real possibility.
Furthermore when it comes to considering damage, the law will not simply assess the damage to directly provable losses of sales, or "direct sale for sale substitution" and recognises that damage from wrongful association can be wider than that indeed more subtle than merely sales lost to a passing off competitor.
Warrington L.J: "To induce the belief that my business is a branch of another man's business may do that other man damage in all kinds of ways. The quality of the goods I sell; the kind of business I do; the credit or otherwise which I might enjoy. All those things may immensely injure the other man, who is assumed wrongly to be associated with me."
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