Law Commons^™

Are Trademarks Ever Fanciful?, Jake Linford

Scholarly Publications

A fanciful trademark-a made-up word like Swiffer for mops or Xerox for photocopiers-is presumed to neither describe nor suggest any qualities of the product associated with the mark. This presumption is consistent with the theory of linguistic arbitrariness: there exists no connection between a given word (tree) and the thing signified by the word (a large woody plant). Because a fanciful mark is assumed to be an empty vessel, meaningless until used as a trademark, it qualifies for protection from first use and receives broader protection against infringement than other categories of trademarks.

Research into sound symbolism challenges the theory …

Datamining The Meaning(S) Of Progress, Jake Linford

Scholarly Publications

No abstract provided.

Valuing Residual Goodwill After Tradmark Forfeiture, Jake Linford

Scholarly Publications

Trademarks contribute to an efficient market by helping consumers find products they like from sources they trust. This information-transmission function of trademarks can be upset if the law fails to reflect both how trademark owners communicate through marks and how consumers understand and use them. But many of trademark law’s forfeiture mechanisms (the ways a trademark can lose protection) ignore or discount consumer perception. This failure threatens not only to increase consumer search costs and consumer confusion, but also to distort markets.

For example, trademark protection may be forfeited when the mark owner interrupts or abandons use, even though consumers …