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Table of Contents Introduction I. Tribal Lawmaking and Trademark Law A. The Importance of Tribal Lawmaking B. The Connection Between Trademarks and Tribal Sovereignty C. Four Examples of Tribal Trademark [...], Native American tribes are increasingly creating their own intellectual and cultural property statutes. Of all the new legislation, tribal trademark law in particular is an engaging yet understudied area. By studying tribal trademark law, it becomes possible to evaluate the nature and scope of tribal sovereignty. And studying tribal trademark law provides an opportunity to consider how federal trademark law might incorporate tribal innovations. Situated at the intersection of tribal law, intellectual property, and tribal sovereignty, this Note asks whether the federal government is prepared to incorporate and recognize tribal trademark law in the same way that it has done for states' laws.

TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 715 I. INJUNCTION, INJUNCTION: WHAT'S YOUR FUNCTION? 718 A. A Brief History of Injunctions 718 B. The eBay and Winter Decisions and Subsequent Court 720 Rulings [...]

I. INTRODUCTION A tie is like kissing your sister. (1) This unique turn of phrase captures the American attitude towards ties--there are, or should be, winners and losers. (2) But [...]

INTRODUCTION I. THE NORMATIVE RATIONALE FOR TRADEMARKS A. Why Protect Trademarks? B. Trademarks Convey Source of Origin Information to Consumers C. Trademarks Reduce Consumers' Search Costs II. UNDERMINING TRADEMARK'S RATIONALE [...], According to the sole normative foundation for trademark protection--"search costs" theory--trademarks transmit useful information to consumers, enabling an efficient marketplace. The marketplace, however, is in the midst of a fundamental change. Increasingly, retail is virtual, marketing is data-driven, and purchasing decisions are automated by AI. Predictive analytics are changing how consumers shop. Search costs theory no longer accurately describes the function of trademarks in this marketplace. Consumers now have numerous digital alternatives to trademarks that more efficiently provide them with increasingly accurate product information. Just as store shelves are disappearing from consumers' retail experience, so are trademarks disappearing from their product search. Consumers may want to buy a product where the brand is the essential feature of the product such that the brand is the product, but they no longer need the assistance of a trademark to find the product. By reflexively continuing to protect trademarks in the name of search costs theory, courts give only lip service to consumer interests without questioning whether trademarks are fulfilling any useful information function. In many cases, trademarks may actually misinform consumers by masking the identity of the producer or its distanced relationship with the trademark owner. Without having deliberately decided to do so, trademark law is now protecting "brands as property" without any supportive normative rationale. Removing the veil of search costs theory will enable courts to consider whether trademark protection is justified in particular cases.

Equity aids the vigilant, not those who sleep upon their rights. The neglect to do a thing in proper season is called laches and is one of the unpardonable sins [...], Most torts have a statute of limitations, a time limit barring delayed lawsuits. Registered trademark infringement, however, has no statute of limitations, and defendants rely on laches to bar inexcusably delayed lawsuits. This ambiguous and complicated standard fails to notify litigants as to when an infringement claim is time-barred and leads to unnecessary and expensive litigation. Unlike laches, however, a statute of limitations is a bright-line rule that is easily adjudicated. This Comment examines the potential benefits of a bright-line statute of limitations in trademark infringement versus the current, ambiguous laches standard. Trademark infringement litigants would likely see the same benefits as those realized in patent and copyright infringement. In recent decades, Congress has replaced laches with statutes of limitations for these torts. The length of permissible delay in bringing a suit is now clearer compared to laches. This clear notice means futile claims are never filed, and timely claims can be confidently pursued without fear of dismissal. The result is improved litigation efficiency and reduced legal costs. Trademark owners should have this same clear notice. The ambiguity of laches was recently magnified by the Fourth Circuit's 2021 decision in Belmora v. Bayer. (1) For decades, courts had dealt with the laches time limit ambiguity by imputing on trademark infringement claims the statute of limitations from the most closely analogous state law tort. The Fourth Circuit in Bayer, however, declared this imputed statute of limitations to no longer be a "legal standard" in trademark infringement cases. (2) What, then, is the allowable delay in the Fourth Circuit? Will other circuits also reject the imputed statute of limitations? With these questions unanswered, the ambiguity of the laches defense in trademark infringement is worse than ever. With this increased laches ambiguity, and the promise of the same litigation efficiencies as realized in patent and copyright, this Comment proposes a statute of limitations for trademark infringement. Congress should amend the Lanham Act governing trademark protection as the American Bar Association (ABA) recommended in 1971. With trademark registration numbers booming, now is the time to revisit the ABA's four-year statute of limitations proposal.

TABLE OF CONTENTS I TRODUCTION 1942 I. T RADEMARK L AUNDERING: A SUCCESSON THE SURFACE 1948 A. Trademark Laundering Expl ained 1951 B. Trademark Lau ndering in Practice 1961 1. [...], At the moment, cannabis companies cannot acquire federal trademark protection for their marijuana products because the "lawful use" doctrine limits trademark registration to goods lawfully sold in commerce. Given that marijuana remains illegal under federal law, this may not sound like much of a problem, but it has serious consequences for consumers. Without trademark rights, one cannabis company can simply use the brand name of another, more prominent, company on its marijuana products, and consumers will assume that they are getting the products they have come to rely on, with potentially dangerous results. The current approach of the United States Patent & Trademark Office (PTO) and the federal courts does little to protect against this outcome and is thus at odds with trademark law's consumer protection and fair competition goals. This Article examines how the PTO and the courts have mishandled marijuana marks and identifies how they have interpreted and deployed the lawful use doctrine in ways that undermine and conflict with trademark's stated goals. Given that the PTO is unlikely to abandon the lawful use doctrine anytime soon, we propose changes to the way the PTO applies that doctrine in the trademark registration process, as well as changes to the courts' consideration of trademark disputes involving cannabis companies. These changes will ensure that both consumers and marijuana businesses are protected as the United States transitions from marijuana prohibition to a post-prohibition federal regulatory regime.

INTRODUCTION Courts' interpretation of parody "fair use" under the Copyright Act of 1976 ("Copyright Act") arises from a well litigated path. (1) Even so, in 2020, the Ninth Circuit was [...]

For decades, the United States Patent and Trademark Office ("PTO") has required trademark owners to comply with sundry nontrademark laws governing the sale of their trademarked goods and services. Pursuant [...]

INTRODUCTION When I became aware of the emergent body of legal scholarship on menstruation related topics on which this Symposium builds, I thought that the authors of these articles were [...]

INTRODUCTION 1826 I. A BRIEF HISTORY OF TRADEMARK FUNCTIONALITY 1834 A. Pre-Lanham Act Cases 1834 B. From the Lanham Act to Qualitex 1840 C. TrafFix and the Present 1844 II. [...], According to functionality doctrine, trademark protection cannot be granted for any feature that is essential to a product's use or purpose, or that affects the product's cost or quality. But because of the placebo effect, even seemingly inert names and symbols are imbued with precisely this kind of power. In fact, a wide variety of real-world phenomena challenge the prevailing understanding of trademark functionality, from the social uses of high-fashion marks to the cost reductions enabled by certification marks. More fundamentally, a valuable trademark of any kind should act to reduce search costs for consumers and improve quality through reputation. And yet, rather than leading to invalidation, all of these well-documented functionalities are apparently tolerated by trademark law--sometimes merely ignored, but often celebrated explicitly. This Article proposes a more unified theory of functionality: fragility. Some product features affect cost, quality, use, and purpose in ways that are non-fragile--the effects would persist even if every producer were to copy the same feature. But some features affect the product in ways that are fragile--the effects would be degraded or broken through unchecked copying. In reality, only non-fragile functionalities are actually prohibited, whereas fragile functionalities are permitted and even encouraged. In a manner surprisingly similar to patent or copyright law, trademark law appears to carefully distinguish between improvements that require its protection in order to manifest, and those that do not. This fragility theory not only better explains real-world case outcomes and the functionality doctrine's full history, but also offers a conceptual improvement that can be applied to all types of trademarks. A generic term, for example, exhibits non-fragile linguistic functionality. Moreover, fragility theory provides consistent answers to divisive boundary issues in trademark law, such as overlapping protection under copyright, anti-dilution rights, and post-sale confusion doctrine. At the same time, recognizing this fragility pattern calls attention to potentially adverse consequences in terms of distributive justice and market competition--consequences that trademark law itself may not be able to remedy.

INTRODUCTION At its core, U.S. law viewed trademarks as a consumer protection mechanism. (1) Trademarks allow companies to communicate information to the market, while trademark law prevents other parties "from [...], At its core, trademark law exists as a tool for consumer protection. Thus, trademark owners use policing and enforcement to maintain a trademark's goodwill, which in turn protects consumers from confusion. But policing and enforcement can lead to trademark overreach and bullying--which undermine the goal of trademark law. This Comment explains that trademark owners are incentivized to engage in aggressive enforcement tactics because courts weigh enforcement efforts in favor of trademark strength. And strong trademarks receive strong protection because such marks are more likely to succeed in trademark infringement litigation. To curb trademark bullying and realign trademark law with its consumer protection purpose, this Comment argues that courts assessing trademark strength should focus on evidence of marketing strategies and consumer perception rather than trademark enforcement.

TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT 927 TABLE OF CONTENTS 928 I. INTRODUCTION 929 II. TRADEMARKS, GENERALLY SPEAKING 934 A. Infringement of a Trademark 936 B. Remedies for Infringement 938 II. LICENSING [...], Federal courts have sometimes applied the doctrine of licensee estoppel to prohibit a trademark licensee from challenging its licensor's rights to the licensed mark, particularly where the licensor has failed to establish and monitor quality control and the licensee contends that abandonment has occurred. This Article examines the history of licensee estoppel and those cases on which courts have and have not enforced licensee estoppel; often on the grounds that enforcing licensee estoppel would not serve the public policy of protecting consumers from deceitful practices. This Article also compares trademark licensee estoppel to patent licensee estoppel and recognize that courts have been far less willing to apply licensee estoppel in patent licensing cases although similar principles are involved. This Article concludes that the doctrine of trademark licensee estoppel should generally be abolished.

I. INTRODUCTION Protecting individuals from confusion: This is considered one of the most basic tenets of modern American trademark law. (1) Consequently, the likelihood of confusion has been the fundamental [...]

INTRODUCTION 890 I. SETTING THE STAGE: [section] 365 AND QUALITY CONTROL 892 A. Prerequisites to Rejection: Executory Contracts and Business Judgment 893 B. The Original Sin: Lubrizol 897 C. Quality [...], Section 365 of the Bankruptcy Code empowers debtors to reject burdensome executory contracts. From 1988 until May 2019, the effect of such a rejection on trademark licenses was unclear. The Supreme Court's recent decision in Mission Product Holdings, Inc. v. Tempnology, LLC settled the matter definitively: all rejections under [section] 365(g) operate exactly as a breach would outside the bankruptcy context. As such, if the trademark license would allow the licensee to continue using the mark after a breach, the licensee may continue to use the mark after a rejection. While this decision comports with the language of the Code and gives effect to the parties' contracted terms, it may functionally deprive debtors of the ability to reject trademark licenses. The problem lies in trademark law's quality control requirements, which obligate licensors to exert control over the trademark's quality. If a debtor-licensor rejects a trademark license and then fails to exert this control--an obligation it should theoretically be relieved of by the rejection--it could face claims of naked licensing and abandonment. Because a successful abandonment claim would render the trademark much less valuable, or even worthless, bankruptcy courts may refuse to approve such a rejection on the grounds that it does not satisfy the business judgment test. As a result, debtor-licensors may be faced with an unsavory decision: pursue a rejection that does not function to relieve the estate of all its obligations, or assume the license. This Note proposes that an equitable solution is only possible with congressional intervention. Specifically, [section] 365 should be amended to allow licensees to retain (1) an adjusted prepetition claim to damages for breach of contract and (2) the rights and obligations, as set out in the contract's breach provisions, to products already produced or possessed by the licensee and controlled for quality by the licensor at the time rejection is approved. The enactment of this brightline, middle-ground solution would adequately balance party interests, give effect to the parties' negotiated breach terms, and create a more predictable structure for trademark license rejections.

This Article explores a problem in trademark law involving the concept of nameness--the degree to which people recognize a word as a personal name-and specifically the strength of the surname [...]

Abstract. The law regulating certification marks--a close cousin of trademarks--is inadequate to handle the needs of state governments as certifiers. While states play important roles in certifying products, the Lanham [...]

TABLE OF CONTENTS I. AN UNEASY COMPROMISE 826 A. The Presumption Against Extraterritorial Application: A Primer 826 B. The Lanham Act and Steele's Grant of Extraterritorial Application 835 II. PROBLEMS [...], US courts have applied domestic trademark law to actions taken outside of the United States's borders for years, but the US Supreme Court recently revamped the presumption against extraterritoriality, a canon of statutory interpretation. The presumption against extraterritoriality promotes a judicial means of respecting the sovereignty of foreign states by disallowing the application of domestic law to foreign acts. However, the Supreme Court interpreted the Lanham Act, the United States's domestic trademark law, to have extraterritorial reach in Bulova Watch Co. v. Steele. This Note traces the recent evolution and strengthening of the presumption before analyzing how circuit courts have attempted to restrict the Lanham Act's reach. It concludes by recommending that the Supreme Court overturn Steele, and the executive branch negotiate a trademark treaty to ensure international respect for trademarks. Doing so will protect trademarks without infringing the sovereignty of other states.

TABLE OF CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION 569 II. BACKGROUND 572 A. Lanham Act Extraterritoriality 574 B. Scholarly Debate and Conventional Wisdom 578 III. EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS 583 A. Summary Statistics 583 1. [...], The law on international trademark disputes is founded on precedent from 1952. Steele v. Bulova Watch Co. is the first and only Supreme Court decision addressing the question of how far the Lanham Act should be extended beyond the United States' national borders when international infringement is at issue. The decision laid the foundation for a three-pronged test that focuses on the factors of defendant nationality, effects on US commerce, and conflicts with foreign law. Although international trademark conflicts have multiplied dramatically--particularly throughout the last decade--there has been no systematic and comprehensive account of the actual state of the law. Courts and commentators continue to rely only on a small set of leading cases--Steele and a handful of appellate court opinions--when testing the territorial scope of the Lanham Act, thus ignoring the landscape of lower courts' decision-making. To address this blind spot, an empirical study of the field's case law from its inception in 1952 until 2016 was undertaken. The results, presented in this Article, reveal that much of the conventional wisdom regarding the state of judge-made law in trademark conflicts cases is questionable, if not incorrect. This Article not only provides new and unexpected insights into the actual extension of US trademark law beyond national territory but also explains which factors drive the outcome of extraterritoriality testing in practice, how these factors interact with one another, and how each factor has been shaped over time. Based on these findings, this Article suggests several corrections to existing doctrine. More succinctly put, in the interest of aligning judicial practice with the realities of socioeconomic globalization, the current overextension of the Lanham Act must be curbed. The doctrine of trademark extraterritoriality that has evolved in the wake of Steele is an anticompetitive detriment rather than a rights holder panacea.

Abstract: Snake oil is dangerous only by way of the claims that are made about its healing powers. It is a speech problem, and its remedy involves speech restrictions. But [...]

This Article examines the relationship between private environmental governance and trademark law. Over the past two decades, green trademarks and other forms of private governance have flourished in tandem with [...]

This article will compare the ways in which the European Union's Office of Intellectual Property (EUIPO) and the US Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) have interpreted and applied their respective trademark laws, sometimes reaching opposite conclusions. Whereas EUIPO may not register trademarks considered to be "contrary to public policy and accepted principles of morality," the US Supreme Court has struck down as unconstitutional a Lanham Act provision that had prohibited trademarks that were "disparaging," and the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has struck down a Lanham Act provision that had prohibited trademarks that were "immoral" or scandalous." After analyzing the legal arguments in trademark litigation in both Europe and the United States, this article concludes that the US Supreme Court should affirm the Federal Circuit's decision in In re Brunetti because it is more efficient to "allow the marketplace to decide" rather than place the onus of keeping up with changes in cultural values on PTO examiners. This article assumes that the European Union will continue in its efforts to prevent registration of trademarks containing hate speech or racial slurs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Lanham Act was enacted by the US Congress in 1946 with the overall purpose of regularizing the nation's registration and use of trademarks. Despite undergoing a number of amendments since its enactment, for the past 70 years, the Act has continued to provide key federal protections against not only the unlawful or deceptive use of trademarks. It also strictly forbad the registration of marks that reasonably could be considered immoral, scandalous, contemptuous, or disparaging. Though hailed by some as an important protection against hateful speech in the public marketplace, others have questioned whether the statute violates the constitutional right to Freedom of Speech. This year, the US Supreme Court issued a ruling that put an official end to this legal controversy. This article provides a detailed description of the case that led to this landmark decision and discusses some of the potential implications for trademarking potentially disparaging brand names. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

INTRODUCTION A quick Google search of "trademark" and "common law" yields a handy booklet published by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) regarding everything one needs to know [...]

TRADEMARK LAW--EXTRATERRITORIAL APPLICATION OF THE LANHAM ACT SAVES AN AMERICAN BRAND FROM A CANADIAN RETAIL PIRATE--Trader Joe's Co. v. Hallatt, 835 F.3d 960 (9th Cir. 2016). The Lanham Act sets [...]

An examination of Japanese cookbooks from the early twentieth century to date demonstrates that changes in the nature of recipe names over the past 87 years have made the relationship between the writer and the audience closer. Recipe names have come to be more informative and creative through the rich use of mimetics, metaphors, and word play. Furthermore, they have become more personalized and stylized. The personal stories behind these recipe names help the author elicit in readers a sense of camaraderie and/or nostalgic memories that specific food items in a given historical period evoke. This article demonstrates two things: what seem to be simple names for recipes can be regarded as a gateway to interpersonal communication between the author and audience; and recipe names have evolved into an increasingly enriched form of communication over time by ingenious use of various tools available in the language.

En la mayoría de países del mundo las marcas notoriamente conocidas son protegidas, probablemente debido a la existencia de tratados internacionales que han promovido su protección, como en efecto ocurre en virtud del ar tículo 6 bis del Convenio de París. No obstante, en las Cortes de Circuitos de Estados Unidos de Norteamérica el tema parece no ser del todo claro, pues existe cierta ambigüedad con respecto a si la protección de una mar ca notoriamente conocida extranjera se encuentra o no incorporada en la Lanham Act . Este artículo desarrolla la anterior problemática a partir de la pregunta inicial y en el proceso se aproxima a las principales doctrinas jurídicas que abordan el derecho de marcas de Estados Unidos, y concluye que por el momento existe un conflicto entre los tratados internacionales que ha suscrito Estados Unidos y el Lanham Act.

Trademark Law--Federal Circuit Holds En Banc That Excluding Disparaging Trademarks Violates First Amendment--In re Tam, 808 F.3d 1321 (Fed. Cir. 2015) (en banc) Congress enacted the Lanham Act for two [...]

In 2014, the Patent and Trademark Office ("Trademark Office" or "Agency") made national headlines when it cancelled the Washington Redskins' trademark registration. The Washington Redskins, a National Football League team, [...]

"Misbranding was one of the chief evils Congress sought to stop." (1) I. INTRODUCTION From television commercials and magazine ads to labels and packaging, food and beverage manufacturers spend a [...]

TABLE OF CONTENTS I. INTRODUCTION II. TRADEMARK AND INFRINGEMENT GENERALLY III. EXPANSION BEYOND POINT OF SALE AND SOURCE CONFUSION: THE INTRODUCTION OF INITIAL INTEREST CONFUSION IV. INITIAL INTEREST CONFUSION AND [...], The Ninth Circuit's opinion in Brookfield Communications, Inc. v. West Coast Entertainment Corp. seemingly created a standard to be applied in trademark infringement cases on the Internet. Despite the cautions contained within the Ninth Circuit's holding, Brookfield ushered in an era in which many courts placed emphasis on three factors of the 'likelihood of confusion' test finding initial interest confusion in many online infringement cases based solely on these three factors. For over a decade, inconsistent application within the Ninth Circuit and other jurisdictions created a disjointed body of case law on initial interest confusion online. The Ninth Circuit's opinion in Network Automation, Inc. v. Advanced Systems Concepts, Inc. provides some clarity but necessitates a review of the applicable standard when determining infringement online. This Article evaluates and reviews the Ninth Circuit's opinions in Brookfield and Network Automation and a sampling of circuit cases that have considered initial interest confusion in an online context. This Article suggests that the Ninth Circuit in Network Automation sought to clarify its holding in Brookfield and to reject subsequent holdings that misapplied the likelihood of confusion test in order to eliminate divergent holdings, most evident within the Ninth Circuit itself, regarding the appropriate analysis of trademark infringement online. The Article concludes by arguing that the likelihood of confusion factors are flexible enough to address emerging technology without the cookie-cutter approach created by the misapplication or interpretation of Brookfield that was the 'Internet Troika.'

INTRODUCTION I. HOW DID ANYONE BESIDES JESUS GET A REGISTRATION FOR JESUS? A. Jesus[R] Creates Doubts about Other Trademarks for Jesus II. IS IT OFFENSIVE TO OWN RIGHTS TO JESUS? [...]

I. INTRODUCTION On the surface, trademark law protects trademarks, defined as any "word, logo or package design, [or some combination thereof,] used by a manufacturer or merchant to identify its [...], 'I would be most reluctant to accept an approach that calls on the district judge to throw a heap of factors on a table and then slice and dice to taste. Although it is easy to identify many relevant considerations ... a court's job is to reach judgments on the basis of rules of law rather than to use a different recipe for each meal.' (1)

"One of the most valuable and important protections afforded by the Lanham Act is the right to control the quality of the goods manufactured and sold under the holder's trademark. [...]

This essay addresses how music is used by political campaigns as a strategic rhetorical tactic that I label audible optics. Audible optics are a variation of political "optics," which are public relations practices designed to make a client's cause appear in a positive light without attending to their substantive positions or character. This argument proceeds in two stages. The first section offers a theoretical framework dealing with issues of representation and iconicity that bear upon the explicit use of music by political campaigns. The second section offers a discussion of celebrity politics on stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

B. Campbell's Lessons for Trademark Law In this subpart I suggest that a trademark parody doctrine--while using a few basic lessons from Campbell--should be more expansive than the one announced [...]

ABSTRACT As Bruce Springsteen and Ronald Reagan, Jackson Brown and John McCain, and Tom Morello and Paul Ryan can attest, the exploitation of creative works for political or commercial purposes [...]

1. Introduction Americans have a long standing love affair with sports and celebrities and their ardor shows no sign of cooling off! This is illustrated by the astronomical figure of [...], This article compares the right of publicity of celebrities with that of professional and college athletes. Sec.1 of this article introduces and defines the concept of right of publicity. Sec.2 begins with a brief background on the history of the right of publicity and its intersection with the First Amendment. Sec. 3 traces the evolution of the right of publicity as it pertains to professional athletes, collegiate athletes and non-athlete celebrities. Sec. 4 illustrates what the present state of the right of publicity jurisprudence is regarding professional athletes, collegiate athletes and non-athlete celebrities. It proceeds to frame the legal issue of whether there are any discrepancies in the application of the right of publicity as to professional and collegiate athletes compared with that of non-athlete celebrities. To analyze this issue, the paper focuses on an in-depth analysis of the evolution of the right of publicity but more importantly the present state of the right of publicity as applied to the aforementioned three discussed classes. Finally, Sec. 5 concludes that it appears that non-athlete celebrities do enjoy a favorable interpretation of this tort claim compared to professional athletes with collegiate athletes faring the worst.

ABSTRACT The Internet has granted consumers access to a wealth of information to use in researching products and services. A substantial portion of this information consists of online consumer reviews, [...]

En la mayoría de países del mundo las marcas notoriamente conocidas son protegidas, probablemente debido a la existencia de tratados internacionales que han promovido su protección, como en efecto ocurre en virtud del artículo 6 bis del Convenio de París. No obstante, en las Cortes de Circuitos de Estados Unidos de Norteamérica el tema parece no ser del todo claro, pues existe cierta ambigüedad con respecto a si la protección de una marca notoriamente conocida extranjera se encuentra o no incorporada en la Lanham Act. Este artículo desarrolla la anterior problemática a partir de la pregunta inicial y en el proceso se aproxima a las principales doctrinas jurídicas que abordan el derecho de marcas de Estados Unidos, y concluye que por el momento existe un conflicto entre los tratados internacionales que ha suscrito Estados Unidos y el Lanham Act. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

NOTE CONTENTS INTRODUCTION I. A BRIEF MORAL RIGHTS PRIMER A. The Berne Convention and the Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990 B. Scholarly Reactions to the VARA Regime II. THE [...], The Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990 (VARA) controversially recognized artists' "moral rights" by protecting their work from alteration or destruction and by preventing the use of an artist's name on a work he did not create. While moral rights are frequently criticized as antithetical to the traditional economic framework of American intellectual property law, Henry Hansmann and Marina Santilli have suggested that moral rights can be justified economically because they vindicate artists' pecuniary interests. This Note, in contrast, argues that VARA also benefits the purchasing and viewing public, especially in an era of factory-made or assistant-produced art works. Specifically, moral rights, like trademark law, can reduce search costs, ensure truthful source identification, and increase efficiency in the art market. This comparison between trademark law and moral rights shows that the sort of rights regime established by VARA is neither unique nor unprecedented in American law, and that it is highly economic in character. Thus, this Note hopes to reframe the dialogue surrounding moral rights, shifting it away from the classic "personhood" or "anti-commodification" arguments that have undergirded the rhetoric up to this day.

Introduction Of the numerous civil rights and social justice issues prevalent within the discourse of the United States, use of Native American mascots and imagery by college and professional athletic [...]

My intellectual property (IP) scholarship was among the first to explore the impact of intellectual property rights on African-American cultural production--and vice-versa. (1) While IP law does not explicitly mention [...]

ABSTRACT In recent years, businesses have discovered a new way to capture consumer loyalty: through their noses. Companies have begun to invest heavily in the development of scent marks and [...]

VI CHARACTER MERCHANDISING--AN INTRODUCTION The commercial exploitation of celebrities and such other entertainment products and services such as fictional characters implicates myriad personal and business interests, and the vehicles for [...]

I. Introduction While the Lanham Act provides a cause of action against trademark infringers, some courts have limited the types of relief accessible to the trademark owners according to the [...]

INTRODUCTION The state has long attempted to regulate sexual activity through a combination of criminal and civil sanctions and the award of benefits, such as marriage and First Amendment protections, [...]

I. Introduction "The artist must know the manner whereby to convince others of the truthfulness of his lies." - Pablo Picasso (1) Every known human civilization has played sports. (2) [...], Abstract: Alabama University has sued artist Daniel Moore for trademark infringement over his use of the university's team colours and other indicia in his artwork. The Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit will be releasing a decision soon. This paper asserts that the inclusion of sports team trademarks in artwork is a functional use. Therefore, in addition to fair use and 1st amendment defences, the functionality doctrine of trademark law protects such artists from being held liable for trademark infringement.

ABSTRACT Trademark law accomplishes its ultimate end--helping consumers easily find, distinguish between, and trust products and services from different brands--through the means of giving markholders an incentive to develop and [...]

I. INTRODUCTION II. TRADEMARKS AND COMPETITION A. Trademark Law as Part of a Broader Unfair Competition Law B. Seeking the Limits of the Trademark Monopoly C. Trade Dress Rights, Product [...]

I. Introduction 678 II. Literature Review 681 A. Remedies 682 B. Link to Terrorism 684 III U.S. Laws and Enforcement 687 A. Federal 687 1. Smoot Hawley Tariff Act of [...]