Who Authors Trademarks?

Abstract

This essay explores the role of public authorship in trademark, a role that has been both taken for granted and ignored. Public authorship has been taken for granted even as it has become embedded in the concept of secondary meaning and other familiar trademark doctrines. Nevertheless, the public's significance as trademark creator for ownership questions has rarely been acknowledged. Although no other intellectual property regime poses so many legal tests that depend upon public consciousness, no other form of intellectual property provides so little corresponding recognition of a public domain.

Keywords: Trademark, Authorship, Intellectual Property