93,998 research outputs found

    The Use of Trademarks in Empirical Research: Towards an Integrated Framework

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    This paper represents an early attempt to develop an integrated framework linking empirical studies that make use of trademark statistics. Despite its youth, this field of scholarly activity has already accumulated a critical mass of papers that allow us to draw first general conclusions about the trademark lifecycle and its impact on organisational functioning. Based on a systematic review of 64 articles with some elements of empirical trademark analysis, five broad research areas have been identified, namely: the determinants of trademark deposits; the relationship between trademarks and innovation processes; the role of trademarks in differentiating product offerings; the strategic use of trademarks; and the impact of trademarks on firm performance. Within each category, a more detailed aggregation of articles has also been proposed. Overall, the analysis has shown that the performance-based perspective currently dominates the research landscape, with studies on trademark deposits and the trademark-innovation link to follow. At the same time, there is still little known about micro-foundations of a company's trademarking behaviour; the use of trademarks and other intellectual property rights in a complementary way and its effect on value transference; as well as the performance implications of differentiation strategy. This paper considers these and other findings to outline directions for future research

    The True Colors of Trademark Law: Green-lighting a Red Tide of Anti Competition Blues

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    The elevation of color to stand-alone trademark status illustrates the unbounded nature of trademarks within the judicial consciousness. The availability of color-alone marks also facilitates the commoditization of color in ways that complicate the development and distribution of products and services that use color for multiple purposes conterminously. The economic case for color-alone trademarks is severely undermined by careful observation of the ways that colors are actually deployed in commerce, which makes it clear that the trademarks of multiple goods and services can utilize the same color to telegraph the same message without confusing anyone or diluting the commercial power of textual or symbolic trademarks. Trademark law can be used to monopolistically harness the aesthetic appeal or preexisting social meaning of a color. The Supreme Court was wrong to facilitate this abuse of trademark powers when it decided in Qualitex v. Jacobson Products Co. that colors alone could constitute protectable trademarks! Long ago the Supreme Court held in the Sears, Roebuck & Co. v Stiffel Co. and Compco Corp. v. Day-Brite Lighting, Inc. cases that the Intellectual Property Clause of the Constitution preserves a right to copy any product feature that is unrestricted by patents or copyrights., Ruling in favor of color-alone trademarks abrogated this important principle for no good reason. The Qualitex holding did not lessen color related consumer confusion, because there was not evidence of any. Instead it reduced competition and consumer choice by creating illegitimate aesthetic and communicative cartels. The primary doctrinal arguments against recognizing color-alone trademarks raised here include aesthetic functionality, the related concept of communicative functionality, uncertainty about scope, and color exhaustion. Colors always add aesthetic value, and often communicate messages unrelated to commercial source. Coupled with the uncertainties related to color-alone marks and the risks of color exhaustion, the anticompetitive effects of color monopolies outweigh any possible social benefit from a regime that permits registration of color-alone trademarks. It is further argued that if any court attempted to declare a color famous for dilution purposes, thereby granting a commercial entity broad rights to monopolize the color well beyond the context in which it is used in commerce, there would be a furious backlash against this ill-advised doctrine. The palette of commercially appealing colors is far more limited than the dictionary of attractive and usable words, and could be radically depleted by deployment of dilution precepts rather quickly. Courts that recognize this may relegate color-alone marks to some second class status that is ineligible for dilution protections, preserving color availability somewhat but further warping trademark doctrine

    Trademarks, Product Variety, and Economic Activity in Italy and Europe

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    This paper studies the relationship between trademarks and economic activity. We compare the distribution of product classes across national, EU, and international trademarks deposited by Italian firms. In relation to EU trademarks, we analyze some characteristics of the deposits of major European countries. In particular, we compare "trademark specialization" to export specialization. A trademark is interpreted as a means to differentiate products, thus a greater number of trademarks deposited is associated with a higher degree of product differentiation. Our findings highlight that trademark protection "follows" quite closely the structure of the real economy, with some exceptions. Thus, those economic sectors where countries exhibit economic specialization also present a higher degree of product differentiation.Trademarks, Intellectual property rights, Specialization, Product variety

    The Nature and Function of Geographical Indications in Law

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    There are two basic types of legal regime for the protection of geographical indications (GIs). Some systems, notably that of the European Union, define and treat GIs as a distinct type of intellectual property. This approach is also reflected in the provisions concerning GIs in the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement). Other legal systems, notably those of Australia, Canada and the United States, treat GIs as a subcategory of trademarks. Like trademarks, GIs function principally as a means of providing information to consumers. EU legislation and jurisprudence, however, define GIs more expansively than do trademark-based legal systems, and see GIs as in some ways superior to trademarks. The EU is attempting to incorporate other features of its system of GI protection into the WTO/TRIPS system. But the nature of GIs is somewhat at odds with that of other types of intellectual property.geographical indications, intellectual property, Origin Regulation, trademarks, TRIPS, WTO, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, International Relations/Trade,

    Masters of War: Rivals’ Product Innovation and New Advertising in Mature Product Markets.

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    We investigate the impact of rivals' product innovation and new advertising on a firm's financial market value in mature product markets. Our test bed is the carbonated soft drink market between 1999 and 2003, a period characterized by a near duopoly between Coca-Cola and Pespi. Empirically, we focus on new product announcements as a proxy of product innovation and on filed trademarks as a measure of new advertising. We find that rival product announcements decrease a firm's financial market value, and that rival filed trademarks increase it. Finally, we find that the effect of new advertising is channeled through market size dynamics, while that of product innovation operates through market share dynamics. Results are robust across different estimation techniques (event study, Tobin's q) and model specifications.Product innovation; Advertising; Firm value; Rivalry; Trademarks;

    Trademarks as Fictitious Commodities: An Erosion of the Public Interest? An Assessment of the use of trademarks over urban space at the example of London’s Regent Street and Paris’ Champs-Elysées

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    With reference to Karl Polyani’s notion of fictitious commodities we evaluate whether the protection of two worldwide known streets, namely ‘Regent Street’ in London and the ‘Champs- Elysées’ in Paris may be perceived as an erosion of the public interest and thus call for potential policy reformulation or reforms to substantive trademark law. The reasons for this choice are twofold: Firstly, the existing body of literature offers an in-depth discussion on the complex dynamics between the public interest and patents and copyrights, yet relatively little has been said so far on the correlation of the public interest and trademarks. Secondly, trademark protection over urban space is a recent phenomenon that has in and by itself not yet been properly grasped, neither from a policy, commercial or legal perspective. We conclude that the ownership structure of each of these two trademarks suggests that, contrary to intuition, it is the use of trademark protection rather than the renouncement from trademark protection that guarantees, at least in these two instances, the public interest. We contend however that the increased use of trademark protection over urban space does bear the potential for the erosion of the public interest and call upon policy makers to formulate guidelines in that respect.Fictitious Commodities, Public Interest, Trademarks, Urban Space, International Economic Integration, Global Competitiveness, Branding Street names, Double Movement Fictitious Commodities, Public Interest, Trademarks, Urban Space, International Economic Integration, Global Competitiveness, Branding Street names, Double Movement Fictitious Commodities, Public Interest, Trademarks, Urban Space, International Economic Integration, Global Competitiveness, Branding Street names, Double Movement

    Sunbeam: A Ray of Hope for Trademark Licensees

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    In the 1985 decision Lubrizol Enterprises v. Richmond Metal Finishers, the Fourth Circuit established that a licensor’s rejection of an intellectual property license under § 365 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code terminates the licensee’s right to continue using the license. Concerned about the detrimental effects that Lubrizol would have on technological development in the United States, Congress responded swiftly by enacting the Intellectual Property Licenses in Bankruptcy Act (IPLBA), which exempted certain forms of intellectual property, such as copyrights, patents, and trade secrets, from rejection under § 365 of the Code. Trademarks, however, are notably absent from Congress’s definition of “intellectual property,” causing the trademark licensing community to question the reach of the IPLBA’s protections. Recently, the Seventh Circuit held that a trademark licensee may continue using a licensed trademark following rejection, despite Congress’s omission of trademarks from its listed definition of “intellectual property.” This Note examines the divide between the Fourth and Seventh Circuits, and it contends that careful consideration of existing executory contract doctrine and the IPLBA’s legislative history, as well as the balance of equities, suggests that trademark licensees should retain their rights to continue utilizing licensed trademarks following rejection

    Trademarks and Competition: The Recent History

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    IP Basics: Trademarks and Business Goodwill

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    This is information all business owners need if they wish to preserve their hard-won goodwill. It discusses, for example, the important differences between strong and weak marks for products and services, the value of state and federal registrations and the importance of searches (to avoid wasting money)
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