Trade marks, language, and the net

Abstract

The rise in the popularity of the internet has fuelled a boom in cross-border communication, and brand owners have both suffered and profited as legal systems have struggled to keep up. If a Singaporean entity advertises its goods on the internet, can it infringe a French registered trade mark? Does it matter if the Singaporean website is in French? After several halting starts, many of the world's jurisdictions have now grappled sensibly with the foreign elements of internet disputes, generally holding that a trade mark used on a foreign website will only infringe in the jurisdiction if the website targets the jurisdiction—by offering goods for shipping to that jurisdiction, or in the appropriate language or currency. Most courts now (rightly) decline jurisdiction based solely on the notion that internet sites can be viewed from all countries. This study, conducted under the aegis of the Institute of Intellectual Property, seeks, contrary...