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 its parent brands. A different form of dilution, trademark dilution, can also occur through the unauthorized...

The principal focus of Sections 43a and 43c of the Lanham Act is on the states of mind - particularly confusion, deception, and dilution - of the relevant public (e.g., prospective purchasers). Other key concepts of trademark law (acquired distinctiveness, secondary meaning, fame and genericism)...

"Law-and-economics," an influential perspective among some in law (and possibly a few in economics), seeks to apply the basic assumption of economics ? that people are "rational maximizers" (i.e., will try to get the most out of what they have) ? to law. Rational Choice Theory provides the...

The principal focus of Sections 43a and 43c of the Lanham Act is on the states of mind - particularly confusion, deception, and dilution - of the relevant public (e.g., prospective purchasers). Other key concepts of trademark law (acquired distinctiveness, secondary meaning, fame and genericism)...

Discussing factors that may make judicial opinions a minefield of misinformation, Seventh Circuit Judge Richard Posner hypothesizes . . . judges' knowledge of the world . . . relevant to legal decision making, derives to a significant degree from judicial opinions that, he suggests, may often be...

A trademark's or trade dress' commercial impression is the meaning or idea it conveys to consumers. Courts and administrative tribunals sometimes are confronted with deciding whether a mark or dress generates a continuing commercial impression. In some instances, this arises in regard to...

Section 43 of the Lanham Act prohibits false or misleading misrepresentations of fact that are likely to cause confusion, or to cause mistake, or to deceive as to the sponsorship or approval of goods or services. Examination of case law reveals emerging disagreement across courts on what needs...

According to Judge Richard Posner, judicial opinions may be a mine of misinformation, but this tends not to be recognized because rarely do "commentators get hold of the briefs and record to check the accuracy of the factual recitals in the opinion." By comparing several opinions with their...