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- Title
Trademark Law and Agency Costs.
- Authors
Bradford, Laura R.
- Abstract
This Article draws on corporate governance scholarship and economic research on problems of agency to argue for a new approach to trademark regulation. Trademark owners are empowered to enforce laws against fraud and deception on behalf of consumers. This arrangement works well in cases of counterfeiting, but leads to abuse with regard to causes of action against non-competing sellers for sponsorship and affiliation confusion. While consumers generally benefit from transparent information about sponsorship and affiliation, trademark owners benefit from obscuring this information in certain contexts. Acknowledgement of the agency conflicts inherent in trademark law mitigates in favor of reduced enforcement authority of trademark owners and procedural safeguards to ensure trademark enforcement actions serve consumer interests.
- Subjects
UNITED States; TRADEMARK laws; AGENCY costs; CORPORATE governance laws; FRAUD prevention laws; TRADEMARK infringement; PRODUCT counterfeiting; CONSUMER protection; ACTIONS &; defenses (Law)
- Publication
IDEA: The Intellectual Property Law Review, 2015, Vol 55, Issue 2, p193
- ISSN
0019-1272
- Publication type
Article