Behind the Steele Curtain: An Empirical Study of Trademark Conflicts Law, 1952-2016

Publikation: Beiträge in ZeitschriftenZeitschriftenaufsätzeForschungbegutachtet

Authors

The law on international trademark disputes is founded on precedent from 1952. Steele v. Bulova Watch Co. is the first and only Supreme Court decision addressing the question of how far the Lanham Act should be extended beyond the United States’ national borders when international infringement is at issue. The decision laid the foundation for a three-pronged test that focuses on the factors of defendant nationality, effects on US commerce, and conflicts with foreign law. Although international trademark conflicts have multiplied dramatically—particularly throughout the last decade—there has been no systematic and comprehensive account of the actual state of the law. Courts and commentators continue to rely only on a small set of leading cases—Steele and a handful of appellate court opinions—when testing the territorial scope of the Lanham Act, thus ignoring the landscape of lower courts’ decision-making. To address this blind spot, an empirical study of the field’s case law from its inception in 1952 until 2016 was undertaken. The results, presented in this Article, reveal that much of the conventional wisdom regarding the state of judge-made law in trademark conflicts cases is questionable, if not incorrect. This Article not only provides new and unexpected insights into the actual extension of US trademark law beyond national territory but also explains which factors drive the outcome of extraterritoriality testing in practice, how these factors interact with one another, and how each factor has been shaped over time. Based on these findings, this Article suggests several corrections to existing doctrine. More succinctly put, in the interest of aligning judicial practice with the realities of socioeconomic globalization, the current overextension of the Lanham Act must be curbed. The doctrine of trademark extraterritoriality that has evolved in the wake of Steele is an anticompetitive detriment rather than a rights holder panacea.
OriginalspracheEnglisch
ZeitschriftVanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law
Jahrgang20
Ausgabenummer3
Seiten (von - bis)567-653
Anzahl der Seiten87
PublikationsstatusErschienen - 2018

Zuletzt angesehen

Organisationen

  1. Leuphana Law School (LLS)

Publikationen

  1. Komik im (kinder)literaturtheoretischen Diskurs
  2. Nächstenliebe I. Zum Begriff
  3. Können Corporate-Governance-Variablen die Qualität der Vergütungsberichte positiv beeinflussen?
  4. Mediatisierte Politikgestaltung
  5. Repatriation outcomes affecting corporate ROI
  6. Berichterstattung nach Art. 8 der EU-Taxonomie-Verordnung.
  7. Soziologie der Nachhaltigkeit
  8. Rechnungslegung nach dem Bilanzrechtsmodernisierungsgesetz (BilMoG)
  9. Erneuerbare Energien
  10. Sind Selbständige zeit- und einkommensarm?
  11. Heinrich Popitz: Einführung in die Soziologie. Konstanz: University Press 2010
  12. Paratexte und ihre Funktion in der Transformation von Wissensordnungen am Beispiel der Reihe von Theodor Zwingers Theatrum Vitae Humanae
  13. Integrierte Versorgung für schizophren erkrankte Patienten
  14. Health literacy and mental health of school principals. Results from a German cross-sectional survey
  15. Interessenpolitisches Umweltmanagement
  16. Psychological distance and imitation
  17. Wildlife habitat association over a twelve-year period (2008-2020) in the Greater Mahale Ecosystem, western Tanzania
  18. Rahmenbedingungen der Schulsozialarbeit
  19. In Krisen aus Krisen lernen
  20. Kooperationen in der Supply Chain
  21. Govern Like You Mean It
  22. Kinderliterarische Komparatistik
  23. Raus auf den Rasen
  24. Beruflich qualifiziert studieren: Alles eine Frage der Work-Study-Life-Balance?
  25. Book Review
  26. Governing landscapes
  27. Lernförderliche Rückmeldungen zu mathematischer Modellierungskompetenz im alltäglichen Mathematikunterricht: Unterrichtsentwicklung durch Lehrerfortbildungen?
  28. Themenschwerpunkt: Die maras, der Gewaltdiskurs in Zentralamerika und unsere Schüler
  29. Die ‚Arisierung’ jüdischen Grundbesitzes in Bremen
  30. Freedom in church and freedom in society in German theology
  31. Critical Perspectives on Social Media and Protest
  32. Thinking beyond Western commercial honeybee hives
  33. Trauer um Prof. Hermann Schweppenhäuser