Over at Liberty Central, David Allen Green asks if corporate bodies should be able to protect their reputations in the same way as individuals can.

Companies have reputations, and of course in a commercial environment these reputations are important. But companies already have a wide range of legal means to protect their brand and to prevent unfair competition. In terms of intellectual property, companies can and do use the law of trademarks, passing off and copyright to prevent inappropriate and damaging attacks on its brand and its products. There is also the right to sue for malicious falsehoods. And since the introduction in 2008 of the business protection from misleading marketing regulations, companies also have a range of protections from other commercial actors making misleading statements, especially in comparative and similar targeted advertising.

It is rather difficult to see what legitimate purpose the right of a company to sue and – crucially – threaten to sue for libel now has in our society. A brief look at cases where companies have sued individuals for libel – the McLibel litigation, British Chiropractic Association v Dr Simon Singh, General Electric Healthcare v Professor Henrik Thomsen and the still ongoing case of NMT v Dr Peter Wilmshurst – suggests that whatever the general arguments for allowing companies to sue for libel, it is a legal weapon that can be used in unattractive ways and against the public interest.

Read the rest here