Dilution and Trademark Registration

Abstract:     
In this article we seek to explore the relationship between dilution and trademark registration. We argue that existing mechanisms for protecting against dilution fit uncomfortably alongside the information function of trademark registers. We therefore explore, as an alternative method of affording trademark owners protection against dilution, a system of defensive registration of the type that emerged in the British Commonwealth in the 1930s. Our intention in doing so is not so much to put forward defensive registration as a model for reform, but more to use defensive registration as a mechanism to examine and problematize anti-dilution protection. In particular, we demonstrate that the objections that might be raised to a defensive registration scheme pose equally awkward questions for advocates of anti-dilution protection.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 44

Keywords: Trade marks, trade mark dilution, dilution, function of registration, Schechter, Schechter's theory

Accepted Paper Series