by and large commercial law cases bore me, but i do like it when old cases come up because they paint a lively picture of commercial and social life in singapore in its colonial period and in the era immediately after independence. in star industrial (a 1974 privy council decision) you learn that between 1958 and 1965 the leading brand of toothbrushes in singapore was ACE brand from hong kong, and that they had withdrawn from the singapore market in 1965 because in that year the singapore government had imposed an import tax on toothbrushes. likewise in an action for passing off (white hudson) the plaintiff was the manufacturer of a black cough sweet wrapped in red cellophane paper. they successfully brought an action against another company whose sweets (though with a very different name) were likewise in a similar red wrapper. a case like this would, i think, be difficult to win today, but it had arisen in the 1950s where english literacy was not widespread. the case turned on evidence adduced to show that non-english speaking customers were in the habit of asking in the various local lanugages for “the red paper cough sweet,” and that the red wrapper packaging was distinctive trade dress and was associated with the plaintiff’s goods. i find that brief snatch of direct speech “red paper cough sweet” more evocative than all the law you can call up.