Goodwill is often described as "the attractive force that brings in the custom", with such being established when a business has a strong trading name and brand, that as a result brings in custom for its goods/services. Unlike registered trade marks, under passing off laws a business' goodwill protects that business as a whole, rather than the individual marks that is uses. Therefore, passing off is concerned with a misrepresentation of that business as a whole, rather than copying of individual goods (albeit, if a third party was to copy your products' unique name or logo, this could be sufficient). Questions as to whether the innocent party has a goodwill or reputation in its business are assessed on a case-by-case basis. However, where there is an alleged infringement of a potentially descriptive mark, it must be established that ordinary members of the public associate that trade mark with the innocent party and nobody else; this becomes more complex when regional goodwill is considered, and a party is seeking to rely on that regional goodwill against a party trading in a completely different region. Our intellectual property solicitors can assist you when determining whether your business (or - if it is being alleged that you have passed off your business as being that of another - the opposing business) has sufficient goodwill in order to establish this element of a passing off claim.