Madness was a British Pop group with hits such as “Baggy Trousers”, Our House, and It Must Be Love. They have perhaps unfairly been described as the Blues Brothers with British accents.
An Israel T-shirt company specialized in brightly coloured T-shirts with car racing logos adopted the name Madness.
The company sued other T-shirt vendors that the alleged infringed their intellectual property by copying their concept of brightly coloured T-shirts with Ferrari, Pirelli and other racing car names and logos.
The problem is that the logos weren’t theirs to start with. They definitely had commercial success with their T-shirts, but had not registered designs, could not claim copyright on the designs, there was no case of passing off and no additional grounds for claiming passing off. The court through out the case.
