Reckitt & Colman Ltd v Borden Inc [1990] 1 All E.R. 873

• Claimant manufactured Jif lemons.

• Defendant wished to produce lemon juice holders almost identical to those of Jif.

• Claimant argued that Defendant was passing off. Defendant argued that use of a lemon to hold lemon juice was both common to the trade, and descriptive.

Held

• On facts:

  1. Use of plastic lemon not ‘descriptive’

     • Even if the plastic lemon was descriptive, had acquired a secondary meaning

     • However in any case probably only words can be descriptive

  2. Use of plastic lemons not ‘common to the trade’

     • Plastic lemons were not in general use in UK; Jif was the sole provider

• Thus Defendant was passing off, and could only market plastic lemons if they had sufficient distinguishing features from Jif.