In Edmund Irvine and Tidswell Limited v. Talksport Limited, the English High Court has issued a decision which is likely to assist celebrities in the control of their name and image. A picture of the racing driver Eddie Irvine had been obtained lawfully but was then altered to appear to show him holding a radio to his ear bearing the name of the defendant's radio station. The Court accepted that famous people will commonly seek to exploit their name and image for the endorsement of products and in this case Irvine could make out a case of passing-off as he had a significant reputation or goodwill at the time the passing-off took place (this was in 1999, the year in which he only narrowly missed winning the World Drivers Championship) and Talksport had created the false impression, which would be understood by a sufficiently significant section of the market, that he had endorsed their product.

The decision should extend a little further the ability of well-known personalities to protect their reputations, in this case to limit the possibility of exploitation by way of false product endorsement.