The Consumer as the Empirical Measure of Trade Mark Law
| Autor: | Kimberlee G. Weatherall |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2017 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | The Modern Law Review. 80:57-87 |
| ISSN: | 1468-2230 0026-7961 |
| DOI: | 10.1111/1468-2230.12242 |
| Popis: | Although consumer responses to signs and symbols lie at the heart of trade mark law, courts blow hot and cold on the relevance of empirical evidence – such as surveys and experiments – to establish how consumers respond to alleged infringing marks. This ambivalence is related to deeper rifts between trade mark doctrine and the science around consumer decision-making. This article engages with an approach in ‘Law and Science’ literature: looking at how cognitive psychology and related disciplines conceptualise consumer decision-making, and how counterintuitive lawyers’ approaches appear from this perspective. It demonstrates how, especially when proving confusion, decision-makers in trade mark demand the impossible of empiricists and are simultaneously blind to the weaknesses of other sources of proof. A principled divergence, without seeking to collapse the gaps between legal and scientific approaches, but taking certain small steps, could reduce current problems of proof and contribute to better-informed, more empirically grounded decisions. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
| Externí odkaz: |
|