A broad term to describe a commercial activity which creates a second comer to unfairly compete with a legitimate business and is in violation of some legal right of that business. Usually the one guilty of unfair competition performs some act tending to confuse or deceive consumers in the marketplace about the sale of goods or services and may extend to claims of false advertising, trademark infringement and other similar damages.
Law Dictionary – Alternative Legal Definition
A term which may be applied generally to all dishonest or fraudulent rivalry in trade and commerce, but is particularly applied in the courts of equity (where it may be restrained by Injunction) to the practice of endeavoring to substitute one’s own goods or products in the markets for those of another, having an established refutation and extensive sale, by means of Imitating or counterfeiting the name, title, size, shape, or distinctive peculiarities of the article, or the shape, color, label, wrapper, or general appearance of the package, or other such simulations, the imitation being carried far enough to mislead the general public or deceive an unwary purchaser, and yet not amounting to an absolute counterfeit or to the infringement of a trademark or trade name. Called in France and Germany “concurrence deloyale.”