Misbehaved Marks: Exploring the Implications of Iancu v. Brunetti
Devon Sanders In Iancu v. Brunetti, the Supreme Court decided that the First Amendment barred the United States Patent and Trademark Office from denying trademark registration for “immoral or scandalous” marks. This marked the first time that owners could register potentially obscene or derogatory marks. This decision changes the future of trademark registration and leaves lasting repercussions throughout trademark law in general. This Article explores the history of trademark law’s ban on registration for immoral or scandalous marks, recent judicial reform with Iancu v. Brunetti and its implications, and potential solutions to challenges caused by the decision. Read Full Text...
Legislative and Non-Legislative Approaches to Deterring Product Counterfeiting
Alec Weinberg Product counterfeiting has been a fast-growing problem in the U.S. economy. As a solution, Congress enacted several statutes to deter illegal counterfeiting. Nevertheless, the effectiveness of Congress’ efforts is questionable. To strengthen the deterrence effect, legislators should consider amending current laws to punish consumers and implementing alternative measures such as track and trace technologies. This approach would better protect businesses and consumers by expanding oversight responsibilities, creating barriers against counterfeit products, and changing public perception of counterfeit goods. Read Full Text Here
Dilemma of Trade Dress, Informational Values and Enigmatic Distinctiveness; Semiotics Illuminating the Status of Distinctiveness
Qadir Qeidary Part I of the present article seeks to as a matter of fact assess trade dress’s potentiality of communicating information within an informative context. In that part, we try to explain that how and to what extent trade dress as a visual indicator is capable of meeting the trademark system’s goals by serving the richer and easier information to retrieve. Moreover, we show that how trade dress’s more effective abilities could positively affect the producers and consumers’ economic interests. Read Full Text Here