Justification for Dilution in Public Good Theory

DOI

10.2991/assehr.k.200826.047How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Intellectual property, Trademark, Trademark Dilution, Public good, Exclusive Right

Abstract

This paper aims at utilizing the public good theory of economics and the principle of market efficiency to strengthen the jurisprudent Support of Trademark Dilution Doctrine in Trademark Law. Since dilution doctrine has long been one of the most controversial issues, that the justification to protect trademark from dilution remains doubtful. Though several theories of justifications for dilution doctrine have been proposed, they are limited in certain aspects. In some theories, trademark has deemed a property that deserves identical protection with property in other forms, while other theories focus mainly on the harm caused by dilutive use of trademark. This paper delves into the latter in an economic perspective. It first starts with the public good theory and its application in copyright and patent. Moreover, based on the characteristics of impure public good in which category trademark can be included, we can find that the core of trademark protection is the harm caused by certain behaviors of third parties. To reach a conclusion, we need to apply the principle of granting exclusive rights which control third parties’ behaviors. In this principle, any exclusive right cannot be accorded unless it can make the society better off. In the public good perspective, the harm (preventing which brings corresponding benefits to the society) caused by dilution to the society is considerable, and costs to prohibiting this harm are trivial or nominal. Thus, this paper concludes that the preventing trademark from dilution is a desirable policy.

Copyright

© 2020, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Zhang Xuyao
PY  - 2020
DA  - 2020/08/28
TI  - Justification for Dilution in Public Good Theory
BT  - Proceedings of the 2020 4th International Seminar on Education, Management and Social Sciences (ISEMSS 2020)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 233
EP  - 243
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.200826.047
DO  - 10.2991/assehr.k.200826.047
ID  - Xuyao2020
ER  -