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Full-Text Articles in Law
Trademarks In An Algorithmic World, Christine Haight Farley
Trademarks In An Algorithmic World, Christine Haight Farley
Washington Law Review
According to the sole normative foundation for trademark protection—“search costs” theory—trademarks transmit useful information to consumers, enabling an efficient marketplace. The marketplace, however, is in the midst of a fundamental change. Increasingly, retail is virtual, marketing is data-driven, and purchasing decisions are automated by AI. Predictive analytics are changing how consumers shop. Search costs theory no longer accurately describes the function of trademarks in this marketplace. Consumers now have numerous digital alternatives to trademarks that more efficiently provide them with increasingly accurate product information. Just as store shelves are disappearing from consumers’ retail experience, so are trademarks disappearing from their …
Bully No More: Why Trademark Owners Engage In Trademark Overreach And How To Prevent It, Quynh La
Bully No More: Why Trademark Owners Engage In Trademark Overreach And How To Prevent It, Quynh La
Washington Law Review
At its core, trademark law exists as a tool for consumer protection. Thus, trademark owners use policing and enforcement to maintain a trademark’s goodwill, which in turn protects consumers from confusion. But policing and enforcement can lead to trademark overreach and bullying—which undermine the goal of trademark law. This Comment explains that trademark owners are incentivized to engage in aggressive enforcement tactics because courts weigh enforcement efforts in favor of trademark strength. And strong trademarks receive strong protection because such marks are more likely to succeed in trademark infringement litigation. To curb trademark bullying and realign trademark law with its …
New Concepts In Trade-Mark Legislation, Orland M. Christensen
New Concepts In Trade-Mark Legislation, Orland M. Christensen
Washington Law Review
The widely favored Lanham Act makes important changes in the former picture, chief of which perhaps is the unprecedented effect now given trade-mark registration. The new act does not alter the common law concept that trade-mark rights must arise first out of actual use of the mark in trade. However, the owner of a valid interstate mark can now strengthen and even expand his rights substantively by registration, and, conversely, his failure to register promptly can result in serious losses.