Trade Marks and Brands An Interdisciplinary Critique

Developments in trade marks law have called into question a variety of basic features, as well as bolder extensions, of legal protection. Other disciplines can help us think about fundamental issues such as: what is a trade mark? What does it do? What should be the scope of its protection? This volume assembles essays examining trade marks and brands from a multiplicity of fields: from business history, marketing, linguistics, legal history, philosophy, sociology and geography. Each chapter pairs lawyers' and non-lawyers' perspectives, so that each commentator addresses and critiques his or her counterpart's analysis. The perspectives of non-legal fields are intended to enrich legal academics' and practitioners' reflections about trade marks, and to expose lawyers, judges and policy-makers to ideas, concepts and methods that could prove to be of particular importance in the development of positive law.

Part I. Legal and Economic History: 1. The making of modern trade mark law: the construction of the legal concept of trade mark (1860–1980) Lionel Bently; 2. The Making of modern trade mark law: the UK, 1860–1914. A business history perspective David Higgins; Part II. Current Positive Law in the E.U. and the US: 3. Between a sign and a brand: mapping the boundaries of a registered trade mark in European Union trade mark law Jennifer Davis; 4. “See me, feel me, touch me, hea[r] me” (and maybe smell and taste me too): I am a trademark - a US perspective Jane C. Ginsburg; Part III. Linguistics: 5. 'How can I tell the trade mark on a piece of gingerbread from all the other marks on It?' Naming and meaning in verbal trade mark signs Alan Durant; 6. What linguistics can do for trade mark law Graeme Dinwoodie; Part IV. Marketing: 7. Brand culture: trade marks, marketing and consumption Jonathan Schroeder; 8. Images in brand culture: responding legally to Professor Schroeder's paper David Vaver; Part V. Sociology: 9. Trade mark style as a way of fixing things Celia Lury; 10. The irrational lightness of trade marks: a legal perspective Catherine Ng; Part VI. Law and Economics: 11. A law and economics perspective on trade marks Andrew Griffiths; 12. The economic rationale of trademarks: an economist's critique Jonathan Aldred; Part VII. Philosophy: 13. Trade marks as property: a philosophical perspective Dominic Scott, Alex Oliver and Miguel Ley Pineda; 14. An alternative approach to dilution protection: a response to Scott, Oliver and Ley Pineda Michel Spence; Part VIII. Anthropology: 15. An anthropological approach to transactions involving names and marks, drawing on Melanesia James Leach; 16. Traversing the cultures of trade mark sphere: observations on the anthropological approach of James Leach Megan Richardson; Part IX. geography: 17. Geographical indications: not all champagne and roses Bronwyn Parry; 18. (Re)locating geographical indications: a response to Bronwyn Parry Dev Gangjee.

A 2008 examination of the nature and function of trade marks and brands, and the scope of their legal protection. Linguists, anthropologists, sociologists, business historians and philosophers provide their views on brands, and their legal counterparts explore the implications of their insights for trade mark law.