Trademarks and Unfair Competition

This widely used casebook, cited by the Supreme Court in its Moseley v. V Secret Catalogue decision on trademark dilution, is authored by three of the nation's preeminent trademark practitioners and teachers. Constitutional issues—pertaining to the Commerce Clause, the Patent and Copyright Clause, the Supremacy Clause, and the First Amendment—are reshaping modern trademark law, have been outcome-determinative in many high-profile cases, and are fueling extremely influential debates in academic literature. Throughout the casebook, great attention is paid to the constitutional and practical relationship of trademark law with other areas of intellectual property law.

The casebook provides an in-depth presentation and analysis of the principal questions and problems in trademark law today, and a synthesis of the current and developing law. The organization provides students with a foundation in the historical and normative principles that have been governed and continue to govern trademark law's evolution, before progressively exposing them to more sophisticated and specific problems. Each section begins with an introductory overview followed by tightly edited cases and a summary of the issues, with analysis through notes and other secondary textual materials. Features of this new edition include:

• Analysis of color protection versus permitted ornamentation, addressing monopoly issues and the courts' power to modify federal registrations, as discussed in the Louboutin "red shoes" decision and others;
• Developments in our controversial dilution laws, addressing, among other things, how close the similarities need to be and the effect of differing connotations, including as discussed In Starbucks v. Wolfborough, the recent and final "Starbucks v. Charbucks" decision;
• Generic "marks" and the effect of protection on fair competition;
• How the assessment of packaging and product design functionality and consequent unprotectability continues to evolve, including when intentional competitive copying will be prohibited and when permitted;
• The aesthetic functionality doctrine and the potential protection of packaging, product and other designs, with continuing confusion, disagreement, and differing applications among the federal courts;
• Contributory infringement, particularly in the online environment, as courts sort out the responsibilities of companies like Google, amid concerns about consumer deception in cases like Rosetta Stone v. Google;
• The Supreme Court's views on covenants not to sue in Already LLC v. Nike, Inc.;
• The continuing evolution of First Amendment analysis and permitted, versus prohibited, uses of another's trademark;
• Application of First Amendment concerns to commercial artistic works such as videogames ? where should the lines be drawn, and when are they crossed.

This book also is available in a three-hole punched, alternative loose-leaf version printed on 8.5 x 11 inch paper with wider margins and with the same pagination as the hardbound book.