Repenser le droit de marque : essai sur une approche fonctionnelle des marques dans l’économie globale et numérique
Rethinking Trademark Rights: An Essay on a Functional Approach to Marks in a Global and Digital Economy – Trademarks, one of the oldest social institutions, rose to a unique standing in the 20th century to become the symbol of modern globalization as well as a means of expression and activism. Since the 1920s, the evolution of the function of marks and trademark rights is discussed. Rights holders sought to extend their protection beyond the initial boundaries to include the marketing concept of brand through erroneous language and rhetoric of property, ownership and theft. Such propositions have disrupted the fragile and dynamic equilibrium between commercial interests and civil liberties. Looking at History, Semiotics and Marketing, I argue that brands gained prominence, but took off from trademarks. The rationale for the latter and for trademark rights is still fundamentally rooted in the referential function to a source. The protection and the legal construction of trademark rights should only revolve around such a function. I therefore propose to recast trademarks’ legal framework upon this function of origin. Redelineating the concept of “mark” through a functional approach will align the law with the diversity and versatility of trademarks in modern societies: whatever serves a referential purpose should amount to a mark. This will notably offer a coherent scheme to include holograms or domain names, among future and unknown new means of reference. This functional approach will also refocus mark rights on the standard of public confusion. I argue that the law should deviate from the standard of use, and understand marks out of the trade sphere. This rationale would offer a stringent but flexible framework that addresses issues of freedom of expression as well as those arising out of the digital world, e.g. advertisement and hashtags.
Trademark Right Functional Approach Canadian Law European Union Law Property Law