The Modern Lanham Act and the Death of Common Sense

Abstract

What appear to be private disputes among hucksters almost invariably touch the public welfare.We shall therefore be concerned to ask, when courts protect trade symbols, whether their decisions further public as well as private goals.! When Ralph Brown wrote his seminal article on trademark law fifty years ago, the modem era of trademark law had just begun.The Lanham Act, the foundation of trademark law today, was only two years old, 2 and the nature of modem commerce was only just beginning to take shape.Quite a lot has changed in fifty years.More and more of the currency of commerce is not goods, but information and even brand-loyalty itself.The economics of trademarks and advertising has grown increasingly sophisticated over this period.