Misappropriation-Based Trademark Liability in Comparative Perspective

Cambridge Handbook on Comparative and International Trademark Law (Cambridge University Press, Jane Ginsburg & Irene Calboli eds., Forthcoming)

St. John's Legal Studies Research Paper No. 18-0024

16 Pages Posted: 17 Aug 2018 Last revised: 4 Nov 2018

See all articles by Jeremy N. Sheff

Jeremy N. Sheff

St. John's University School of Law

Date Written: July 30, 2018

Abstract

This chapter for the Cambridge Handbook on Comparative and International Trademark Law compares the doctrinal strategies deployed by the European Union and United States to serving the anti-misappropriation impulse in trademark law. While the EU's enforcement regime openly embraces anti-misappropriation norms, the ostensible American antipathy to such reasoning finds its expression in the muddled American doctrines of dilution by blurring and post-sale confusion. I show how such doctrines conceal misappropriation-based outcomes under a hodgepodge of weak consumer-psychology-based rationales. I further show how this doctrinal smokescreen does violence to other important American trademark doctrines, such as the first-sale doctrine and the law of contributory liability.

Keywords: trademarks, post-sale confusion, misappropriation, conspicuous consumption, luxury brands

Suggested Citation

Sheff, Jeremy N., Misappropriation-Based Trademark Liability in Comparative Perspective (July 30, 2018). Cambridge Handbook on Comparative and International Trademark Law (Cambridge University Press, Jane Ginsburg & Irene Calboli eds., Forthcoming), St. John's Legal Studies Research Paper No. 18-0024, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3222768

Jeremy N. Sheff (Contact Author)

St. John's University School of Law ( email )

8000 Utopia Parkway
Jamaica, NY 11439
United States
718-990-5504 (Phone)

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