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Full-Text Articles in Law
The Commodification Of Trademarks: Some Final Thoughts On Trademark Dilution, Kenneth L. Port
The Commodification Of Trademarks: Some Final Thoughts On Trademark Dilution, Kenneth L. Port
Faculty Scholarship
This article is an explication of the trend toward commodification of famous or putatively famous trademarks and the resultant urging that the FTDA be repealed. This article starts with a literature review showing that the vast majority of commentators have been severely critical of the FTDA. This has been ignored by Congress. The article next pursues Congress's blind support of the FTDA and suggests that more thought and analysis from Congress is still required. The article next explains the data regarding FTDA claims. All reported cases from 1996 through 2015 are coded and examined. The conclusion, looking at the data, …
Testing Tarnishment In Trademark And Copyright Law: The Effect Of Pornographic Versions Of Protected Marks And Works, Christopher Buccafusco, Paul J. Heald, Wen Bu
Testing Tarnishment In Trademark And Copyright Law: The Effect Of Pornographic Versions Of Protected Marks And Works, Christopher Buccafusco, Paul J. Heald, Wen Bu
Faculty Scholarship
Federal and state law both provide a cause of action against inappropriate and unauthorized uses that ‘tarnish’ a trademark. Copyright owners also articulate fears of ‘tarnishing’ uses of their works in their arguments against fair use and for copyright term extension. The validity of these concerns rests on an empirically testable hypothesis about how consumers respond to inappropriate unauthorized uses of works. In particular, the tarnishment hypothesis assumes that consumers who are exposed to inappropriate uses of a work will find the tarnished work less valuable afterwards. This Article presents two experimental tests of the tarnishment hypothesis, focusing on unauthorized …
Eighth Circuit Trademark Opinions, Kenneth L. Port
Eighth Circuit Trademark Opinions, Kenneth L. Port
Faculty Scholarship
The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals’ trademark jurisprudence has been truly fair and balanced since the 1946 passage of the Lanham Act. The court has created this fair and balanced jurisprudence by creating firm standards and sticking to them. Although not the most popular circuit in which to find a trademark case, the Eighth Circuit has kept a constant vigil to assure that trademark plaintiffs do not dominate over trademark defendants. This balanced approach to trademark law is consistent with the Minnesota Supreme Court, which recently held that “advertising injury” included trademark infringement, and therefore the defendant’s insurance carrier had …
The Expansion Trajectory: Trademark Jurisprudence In The Modern Age, Kenneth L. Port
The Expansion Trajectory: Trademark Jurisprudence In The Modern Age, Kenneth L. Port
Faculty Scholarship
American trademark law is expanding. The expansion began with the adoption of
the Lanham Act in 1947. At that time and ever since, commentators and law makers
alike referred to the Lanham Act as a codification of the existing common law. In fact,
this codification was a selection and expansion of the common law. The United States
has continued to expand trademark jurisprudence: from incontestability, to cybersquatting,
to dilution - the notion of what it means to protect a trademark has
continued to expand. During this time, the Commerce Clause on which American
federal trademark protection is based has not …