Common Law in Southern Africa: Conflict of Laws and Torts Precedents

The principles of liability for "passing off" in Southern Africa are essentially the same as in common law jurisdictions. The result of passing off litigation usually depends upon the facts of the particular case and the relief the court is asked to grant.¹ The following cases are significant because of their consideration of general issues of passing off liability.

Pockets (Holdings) Ltd. v. Oak Holdings Ltd.² would have been a very typical passing off case but for the fact that the plaintiffs did little business where the defendant traded. The plaintiffs, a holding company and two subsidiaries, owned businesses in Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia, which had long traded under the name "Pockets". The defendant established similar businesses under the name "Pockets" in Bulawayo, apparently for the deliberate purpose of taking advantage of the goodwill attached to the name. Only one of the plaintiffs actually did business in Bulawayo, and the amount of business it did was small. However, the plaintiffs were well-known to the public there.

The court restrained the defendant from doing business under the

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