Trade Marks and Brands

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.