Famous Marks Now Federally Protected against Dilution

Consumer researchers have conceptualized brand name dilution in terms of the potentially damaging effects that a company's own brand extensions can have on beliefs and attitudes toward parent brands. A different form of dilution, trademark dilution, can also occur through the unauthorized use of a mark (e.g., brand, logo) by an entity other than its owner. With passage of the Federal Trademark Dilution Act of 1995, an increasing number of trademark dilution cases are being litigated. A recurring issue in these cases has been how to measure trademark dilution. The authors review the concept of trademark dilution and explore how recognition and recall-based methods can be used for empirically assessing trademark dilution. The authors also investigate the impact of brand familiarity and product category similarity on the extent of trademark dilution and discuss implications, limitations, and areas for further research.

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Trademark Dilution: Empirical Measures for an Elusive Concept

Morrin

Jacoby²

2000

“…In contrast, trademark dilution protects trademark owners from a lessening of the selling power of their famous marks. Such protection occurs regardless of any consumer confusion (Samuels and Samuels 1996). Consumers may benefit from dilution protection because famous trademarks will have fewer product associations.…”

Section: The Patchwork Of Marketing Regulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Societal Regulation of the Marketing Function: Does the Patchwork Create a Quilt?

Petty

2005

Trademark Protection of Product Characteristics: A Predictive Model

Burgunder

1997

Marketing professionals, in their quests to find new ways to distinguish products, now seek trademark protection for a wide array of product attributes, such as colors, odors, sounds, and shapes. Public policymakers have been willing to expand trademark protection to these realms, but unfortunately without formulating a coherent philosophical approach to guide their decisions. The author provides a conceptual model that enables marketers to predict how the Patent and Trademark Office and the courts will resolve specific questions regarding the applicability of trademark protection for product characteristics.