Unfair Competition

Business practices that cause economic injury to your business, rather than fairly compete, are not legal. Unfair competition is a blanket term that covers a wide variety of unfair tactics — from misleading customers to stealing proprietary information such as customer lists. In a free economy, there is no place for deceptive or wrongful business practice. While the right to compete is important, competition ought to be fair.

If another business has caused you economic injury through unfair or dishonest business practice, you may have a claim for unfair competition. Some common examples of unfair competition included trademark infringements, trade defamation, and misappropriation of trade secrets. See our section on false advertising for a thorough explanation.

Trademarks are common area of unfair competition. Your competition is not allowed to make unfair or deceptive statements about your business or products. The purpose of a trademark is to identify the maker of a product. Trademark is all about trust. When your competition is associating dishonest information with your name, it erodes the trust that a trademark is design to protect. You may have an action against this type of activity.

Our Unfair Competition Lawyers Will Reclaim Your Rights

Trade secrets are a second common area of unfair competition. The reality is your competition will be working hard to discover your valuable secrets. Reverse engineering a lawfully acquired product is acceptable. However, your competition may not used “school boy tricks” to discover your secrets. For example, impersonating employees, eavesdropping and other types of surveillance, or stealing information is not allowed. These are examples of unfair competition.

Generally, once another party discovers a secret, it is no longer a secret. But if another party uses unfair means to discover your secret, your secret may still be afforded protection of the law.

Unfair Competition: Fighting Back

The remedies available for unfair competition can include damages as compensation for economic injuries as well as injunctions to order the party to cease unfair practices in the future.

Our New York commercial litigation attorneys can take legal action to prevent future unfair competition through injunctions and compensate for past economic injuries from unfair competition through damages.

Fairness is a bedrock principal of a free country and free markets. New York’s unfair competition laws are intended to protect businesses and consumers alike. If you are experiencing unfair competition, let our unfair business competition attorneys help you resolve the situation.