Document Type

Book Chapter

Publication Date

2017

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199684205.013.018

Abstract

Chapter 9 summarizes the dominant law and economic approach to some of the doctrines comprising the two major strands of modern trademark law: classic trademark law, in which trademark protection is justified as reducing consumer search costs and preventing consumer confusion; and dilution law, which is explained by the more traditional intellectual property justifications of encouraging investment in creating valuable marks and protecting producer goodwill. It argues that the culmination of trademark law in the form of protection against dilution represents completion of a full circle of development of unfair competition law. From its start as a means of protecting merchants’ entitlement to custom, unfair competition law, and its subsidiary trademark law have evolved in several stages, which are discussed in the chapter in detail.

Disciplines

Intellectual Property Law | Law | Law and Economics

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