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Is The Word "Consumer" Biasing Trademark Law?, Dustin Marlan
Is The Word "Consumer" Biasing Trademark Law?, Dustin Marlan
Texas A&M Law Review
Our trademark law uses the term “consumer” constantly, reflexively, and unconsciously to label the subject of its purpose—the purchasing public. According to the U.S. Supreme Court, trademark law has “a specialized mission: to help consumers identify goods and services they wish to purchase, as well as those they want to avoid.” As one leading commentator puts it, “trademarks are a property of consumers’ minds,” and “the consumer, we are led to believe, is the measure of all things in trademark law.”
Much criticism has been rightly levied against trademark law’s treatment of the consumer as passive, ignorant, and gullible. For …
Taking Access Seriously, Bj Ard
Taking Access Seriously, Bj Ard
Texas A&M Law Review
Copyright is conventionally understood as serving the dual purposes of providing incentives for the creation of new works and access to the resulting works. In most analysis of copyright, however, creation takes priority. When access is considered, it is often in the context of how access relates back to the creation of new works. Largely missing is an account of the value of access on its own terms.
So what is the place of access in copyright law and policy? A set of cases dealing with copyright owners’ attempts to enjoin the markets created by new playback and distribution technologies …