Law Commons^™

Private Fair Use: Strengthening Polish Copyright Protection Of Online Works By Looking To U.S. Copyright Law, Michal Pekala

Michal Pekala

No abstract provided.

Lessons From The Trademark Use Debate (With M. Janis), Graeme B. Dinwoodie

Graeme B. Dinwoodie

In their response to our article Confusion Over Use: Contextualism in Trademark Law, Professors Dogan and Lemley discard more all-encompassing versions of the trademark use requirement. Instead, they seek to delineate and defend a “more surgical form” of trademark use doctrine. In this reply, we demonstrate that the language of the Lanham Act does not impose a trademark use requirement even when that requirement is defined “surgically” and sections 32 and 43(a) are read “fluidly,” as Dogan and Lemley suggest. Moreover, their interpretation still renders section 33(b)(4) redundant and unduly limits appropriate common law development of trademark law. We also …

Foreign And International Influences On National Copyright Policy: A Surprisingly Rich Picture (F. Mcmillan, Ed.), Graeme B. Dinwoodie

Graeme B. Dinwoodie

National copyright policy, traditionally reflective of domestic cultural and economic priorities, is increasingly shaped by foreign and international influences. In this chapter, I sketch some of the changes in copyright lawmaking that have given rise to this phenomenon. Especially when viewed in historical context, foreign and international influence on the development of copyright law is now quite pervasive – albeit in ways, and effected through a number of institutions, that might appear surprising.

What Linguistics Can Do For Trademark Law, Graeme B. Dinwoodie

Graeme B. Dinwoodie

This contribution to an inter-disciplinary book on Trademarks and Brands responds to the work of Alan Durant, a linguist who (in his chapter of the book) provides legal scholars with both a rich understanding of how linguists view terms that are part of the basic argot of trademark law and a potentially vital explanation of the different social functions that word marks might serve. The Response explains why linguistics should matter to trademark law, but also why trademark law might on occasion ignore the precise reality of consumer understanding as might be provided by linguistics. I suggest that, while trademark …

The International Intellectual Property System: Treaties, Norms, National Courts And Private Ordering, Graeme B. Dinwoodie

Graeme B. Dinwoodie

Although part of the political impetus for international intellectual property law making has long come from the economic gains that particular countries could secure in the global market, the recent situation of intellectual property within the institutional apparatus of the trade regime has been an important factor in the transformation of the classical system of international intellectual property law. This chapter analyses various aspects of this transformation. It suggests that viewing intellectual property through the prism of trade alone offers an incomplete explanation of the changes that have occurred in international intellectual property law making. For example, a full account …

Confusion Over Use: Contextualism In Trademark Law (With M. Janis), Graeme B. Dinwoodie

Graeme B. Dinwoodie

This paper tackles an intellectual property theory that many scholars regard as fundamental to future policy debates over the scope of trademark protection: the trademark use theory. We argue that trademark use theory is flawed and should be rejected. The adoption of trademark use theory has immediate practical implications for disputes about the use of trademarks in online advertising, merchandising, and product design, and has long-term consequences for other trademark generally. We critique the theory both descriptively and prescriptively. We argue that trademark use theory over-extends the search costs rationale for the trademark system, and that it unhelpfully elevates formalism …

Towards An International Framework For The Protection Of Traditional Knowledge, Graeme B. Dinwoodie

Graeme B. Dinwoodie

At a seminar organized by UNCTAD and the Government of India in 2002, participants considered how evolving national systems for the protection of traditional knowledge could be supported or augmented by international measures adopted at the regional or global level. The need for solutions on the international level has been discussed in a number of fora. Yet, the effective protection of the holders of traditional knowledge requires that these discussions move in some way toward implementation of working systems of protection.

This short paper, commissioned by UNCTAD for a conference in February 2004, and to be republished in a book …

Conflicts And International Copyright Litigation: The Role Of International Norms, Graeme B. Dinwoodie

Graeme B. Dinwoodie

No abstract provided.

Trademarks And Territory: Detaching Trademark Law From The Nation-State, Graeme B. Dinwoodie

Graeme B. Dinwoodie

It is an axiomatic principle of domestic and international trademark law that trademarks and trademark law are territorial. This paper critiques the principle of territoriality in four ways. First, I suggest that statements about trademark territoriality mask a variety of related propositions. In disaggregating the "principle of territoriality" into its component parts, it becomes apparent that different rules of trademark law possess a territorial character for different reasons. For example, common law trademark rights are territorial because the intrinsic purpose of trademark law suggests extending (and limiting) rights to the geographic reach of goodwill. In contrast, registration systems designed to …

The Rational Limits Of Trademark Law (Plus 2005 Postscript), Graeme B. Dinwoodie

Graeme B. Dinwoodie

No abstract provided.

International Intellectual Property Litigation: A Vehicle For Resurgent Comparativist Thought?, Graeme B. Dinwoodie

Graeme B. Dinwoodie

No abstract provided.