This lesson discusses the social policy justifications for the legal protection of trademarks. It provides a general understanding of how those policy objectives derive from market economic principles as well as how they drive the core elements of trademark law. This lesson may be useful preparation for a first class on trademark law or to reinforce points made during a class on trademark policy.
This lesson explores the concept of service marks, and the similarities and differences between service marks and trademarks.
This lesson assumes that you have already acquired a basic familiarity with the rules that apply to marks that are used on or in connection with the offering of goods. Specifically, you should be familiar with the types of subject matter that may qualify as marks, the spectrum of distinctiveness, and the standard for determining whether a mark has been used in trade (or, for protection under the Lanham Act, in interstate commerce).
This lesson explores the Lanham Act provisions governing federal registration of collective marks and certification marks.
The purpose of this lesson is to serve as an introduction to the rapidly growing area of trade dress law. Several new developments have occurred in this area of the law just in the past five years. Most of these developments deal with the correct balance between protecting the freedom of competitors to copy packaging or design features on the one hand and protecting the appearance or physical features of a product when these packaging or design features operate as indications of source on the other.
This lesson offers an introduction to the doctrine of functionality, which operates as a defense prohibiting anyone from claiming an exclusive right in functional shapes, elements, or aspects of a product or product packaging. The protectability or registrability of a trademark depends on a factual determination of a design's functionality. The functionality doctrine attempts to weigh the public and private interest in copying design features against a trademark owner's inherently anticompetitive objective to avoid consumer confusion.
This lesson provides an analysis of the levels of distinctiveness and the requirements for the determination of whether a term chosen as a mark is inherently distinctive, must yet acquire distinctiveness, or is incapable of trademark protection regardless of distinctiveness. The lesson is intended as a review of material that is covered early in a Trademark Law course.
This lesson builds on the concepts that you may have been introduced to in Professor Robert Lind's lesson on the classification of marks, e.g., generic marks, descriptive marks, suggestive marks, arbitrary marks, and fanciful marks. Specifically, this lesson will concentrate on the validity of a mark for trademark protection purposes when the trademark or trade dress is not inherently distinctive.
This lesson explores how trademark law deals with two specific categories of marks: foreign (non-English) words and people's names. It addresses their ability to function as marks as well as how they should be assessed when determining infringement. The lesson assumes a working familiarity with the "distinctiveness" requirement, the fair use doctrine, and the likelihood of confusion test for infringement.
This lesson provides an overview of the central role of "use" in United States trademark law. It examines how the policy justifications driving trademark law (1) justify generally requiring use to obtain and maintain trademark rights and related infringement considerations and (2) define sufficient use for those trademark law purposes. It also addresses and explains the few specific exceptions to the use requirement. The lesson assumes a basic knowledge of trademark policy, the distinctiveness classification system and infringement.
This program takes the student through the basics of a particular area of trademark law — the geographic scope of trademark protection. It includes the general common law principles as enunciated in early Supreme Court cases (Hanover, Rectanus) as well as zone of natural expansion. The program also contains complete coverage of Lanham Act principles including constructive notice, constructive use, section 33 and the limited area defense, concurrent use, and the need for confusion (Dawn Donut).
This lesson is designed to help the student determine the scope of protection given to a trademark. It is designed to supplement material that has been covered in the trademark law course. The determination of the scope of a mark's protection is helpful in the initial selection of a trademark, the trademark registration process, and the enforcement of the trademark. The student will review the concept of related goods by investigating the scope of trademark protection in several scenarios. Students should be familiar with how to select a trademark, register a trademark, and apply the likelihood of confusion test.
This lesson addresses the trademark doctrine of "exhaustion/first sale." The doctrine governs the trademark owner's continuing rights regarding authentic goods bearing the mark put into the marketplace. The lesson assumes familiarity with trademark's policy objectives, the basic "likelihood of confusion" test for infringement and "fair use," in particular nominative fair use and the problems associated with implied sponsorship.