Trade Marks and Brands An Interdisciplinary Critique [Paperback]

A collection of essays examining the nature and function of trade marks and brands.An 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.An 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.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 (18601980) Lionel Bently; 2. The Making of modern trade mark law: the UK, 18601914. 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 registels+