Lurpak Vs Norpak Case Summary

In order to determine whether or not a case for passing off can be built, there are three requirements that must be fulfilled. Firstly, the plaintiff must have established, over time, a reputation in a certain trade indicia, where consumers and likely consumers associate that trade indicia with the plaintiff. Secondly, it must be proven that the defendant has relied on the reputation or goodwill of the plaintiff in the course of trade, and therefore has deceived or confused consumers. This is known as misrepresentation, and can be as to the source of the product, the quality of the product or sponsorship, franchising or licensing of the product. Thirdly, it must be proven that because of this misrepresentation, there is a possibility of damage …show more content…
However, with the two products in question, it is expected that Norpak will retail for a lower price due to selling at ALDI, a discount supermarket, whereas Lurpak would be on sale at Safeway and/or Coles, and would thus price a bit higher, although most likely not enough to clearly distinguish the difference between these two where consumers would not get confused. As it is unlikely that these products would ever be sold next to each other, it is probable that consumers will confuse the two products, due to their similarity in nature, as they will not have an opportunity to see them beside each other to …show more content…
The reason for this is that, although the company’s longevity in the dairy business is proven, it still isn’t quite at the level of a product such as Coca-Cola, where the logo, packaging, colour, font and symbolism of the product are embedded in consumers’ minds, and as a result they would be able to easily distinguish between the name brand Coca-Cola and a generic home brand cola. Thus, this creates the likelihood that consumers will be deceived and, in instances, purchase Norpak under the impression that it is Lurpak.
It can be assumed that in the butter market there is generally not a strong brand loyalty by consumers to a particular brand of butter, as opposed to something like the energy drink market. That is to say, consumers would generally not be expressly searching for a pack of Lurpak butter, whereas they may be exclusively looking to purchase a Red Bull, as it is their energy drink of choice. Thus, it is very reasonable and realistic to assume that the possibility to be deceived is very likely.