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.
