Law Commons^™

The (Boundedly) Rational Basis Of Trademark Liability: Reconciling The Federal Trademark Dilution Act And The Lanham Act, Jeremy Sheff

ExpressO

The confusion that has accompanied the effort to graft a dilution remedy onto federal trademark law has sown deep uncertainty about the remedy's proper scope and purpose. This confusion is an outgrowth of the peculiar history of dilution theory in the development of trademark law, and the resulting tension between uniqueness-based theories of dilution and theories based on free-riding concerns. This Article takes the position that the current conceptual framework for trademark liability is misguided. By focusing its analysis on consumer beliefs about the relationship between a mark and a manufacturer, current trademark doctrine is ignoring a far more persuasive …