In the Shadow of the Trade-Mark Cases: The 1881 Trademark Act and the Supreme Court
Book Chapter in Forgotten Comparative Intellectual Property Law, Edward Elgar Publishing, 2020
39 Pages Posted: 2 Jun 2020 Last revised: 11 Jan 2023
Date Written: May 4, 2020
Abstract
In 1879, the US Supreme Court famously struck away federal trademark law in the TradeMark Cases, leading Congress to leap into action and pass a new trademark statute within two years. Much less famously, though, the same thing happened again 24 years later in a largely forgotten case, Warner v. Searle & Hereth, leading to the passage of the 1905 trademark law within two years. This is the story of how a commercial dispute between two early pharmaceutical companies led to the first American trademark law of the 20th Century.
Keywords: trademarks, pharmaceuticals, intellectual property, first amendment, legal history, legislation
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