Law Commons^™

The Exclusive Right To Customize?, Mark A. Lemley, Sari Mazzurco

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Artists, political commentators, and even multinational corporations are increasingly taking existing branded products and modifying them – sometimes to comment on the underlying product, sometimes to make a political or artistic statement unrelated to that product, sometimes to make them look fancier than they are, and sometimes for their own advertising purposes. As ornamenting and customizing existing products has shifted from a personal hobby to a business model, trademark owners have begun to insist that they have the exclusive right to control the appearance of products associated with them or that prominently bear their logos. We call this assertion a …