A Brand Theory of Trademark Law

Abstract

Trademark law is incoherent, and it fails to manage all the interests at stake in the modern business environment. This failure flows from a core misunderstanding. Trademark law has not grasped that is managing brands, not trademarks. In this article, Professor Deven Desai develops a new theory of trademarks which provides trademark law with a way out of its current confusion. Professor Desai argues that trademark law really protects brands and must fully embrace this fact. He demonstrates how his brand theory of trademark law will avoid the incoherence and problems from which trademark currently suffers and offers a framework to understand the purpose, function, and scope of trademark law.Published version, titled 'From Trademarks to Brands', Florida Law Review, Vol. 64, No. 4, pp. 981-1044, 2012.