The appellant brought an action for passing off against the respondent, alleging that the name and get-up of the respondent's beer product caused confusion with its own product.
The trial judge dismissed the action.
On appeal, the Court of Appeal affirmed the dismissal, holding that the respondent's registered trade-mark for the label was a complete defence to the passing off claim.
Under section 19 of the Trade-marks Act, the registration of a trade-mark gives the owner the exclusive right to use it throughout Canada unless the mark is shown to be invalid.
