Trademark laws are government regulations of language, designs, and other types of expression used to communicate about the source of goods or services. Trademarks are also used by their owners and others to provide information about a product’s qualities, express ideas and opinions, and decorate products and their packaging. Unfortunately, some trademark laws today stifle the communication of nonmisleading messages protected by the right to freedom of expression in the United States, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and other countries. Trademark enforcement laws apply to expression that is not false or misleading, and noncommercial uses of marks may be suppressed under trademark infringement laws in the United States. Trademark offices also register words, personal names, symbols, product features, or other signs with substantial pre-existing informational, expressive, or decorative value that is not attributable to the trademark owner’s reputation, and some courts protect broad trademark rights in such marks and trade dress. In this presentation, I argue that governments should ensure that their trademark enforcement laws contain speech-protective and pro-competitive rules that allow informational and expressive uses of another’s mark that are not likely to mislead about a product’s source, and decorative uses of words, colors, and creative works that had intrinsic attention-grabbing value before they were claimed as a mark by another.
Lisa Ramsey is a Professor of Law at the University of San Diego School of Law, where she teaches and writes in the intellectual property law area. She is an expert on trademark law and has given presentations on this topic to attorneys, professors, and students throughout the United States and around the world. Professor Ramsey’s scholarship focuses on potential conflicts between trademark laws and free speech rights, and explains how trademark protection of certain inherently valuable words, symbols, and product features can harm fair competition and freedom of expression. She is currently working on a book about this topic which will be published by Cambridge University Press. In 2024, she testified at a hearing held by the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee's Intellectual Property Subcommittee about the First Amendment implications of a proposed anti-impersonation law targeted at unauthorized digital replicas called the No FAKES Act. She has also talked about free speech limits on trademark rights on panels at San Diego Comic-Con in 2023 and 2024. Professor Ramsey is an active member of the American Intellectual Property Law Association and worked on the subcommittee that updated the International Trademark Association’s Model Trademark Law Guidelines in 2019. Before joining the USD law faculty in 2004, she was an intellectual property litigator at Gray Cary Ware & Freidenrich and a judicial law clerk for the Honorable Rebecca Beach Smith in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. Information about her publications is available on her website at www.lisapramsey.com.
- Speaker
- Professor Lisa P. Ramsey
- Hosted by
- Centre of Commercial Law
- Venue
- KCG5/MS Teams
- Contact
-
Event is free and open to all. To register for the online event please email Dr Qiang Cai at qiang.cai@abdn.ac.uk
