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item0059E 898, 899 898 28 December 2003
Robbie Williams
The Williams' machine is simply exploring another byway along that route. This represents a new twist in the burgeoning story of "intellectual (i.e. abstract) property". And Robbie will find that there is a major difference, in this respect, between the ultra-capitalism of the United States, and more moderate capitalism of Europe. "Trade mark" protection is a relatively modern phenomenon. "Patents" go back to Elizabeth I - and "passing off" is at English law a civil wrong of considerable antiquity. But legal protection for trade marks was a creation of the trade-minded Victorians. Trade marks were intended to be applied only to physical objects, in particularly industrial products. And it is only in very recent years that the same protection has been extended to the more abstract concept of a "service", allowing service companies to use "service marks" to protect their commercial positions.But trade mark law has developed quite differently in the United States, giving businesses a wider, and quite cynical, "freedom". 
In the UK, a trade mark may only be used to assert a substantive connection between products - the designated goods must come from the same source, in some substantive sense. Designs from the same designer, goods from the same firm, manufactured products from the same manufacturer.
But in the USA, trade marks can be bought and sold as items of property in their own right. In the States, "Robbie Williams"TM could legally be bought outright, and attached to goods which had no conceivable connection with the singer, his choice, his styles, his songs or anything else about him. It is a profoundly dishonest process, designed to favour the business community. The "hyper-capitalism" of the States has allowed the Trade Mark to become an item of property in its own right - while English law (and broadly, other Continental systems) have continued to insist that the Trade Mark remains an "honest" description of common provenance, in some convincing sense.
Do you have any experience of the abuse of Trade Marks? Drop me a line
--------- 2003 Moh the Newcastle E What do you think? Drop me a line
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| Created by GMID Design & Communication COPYRIGHT
NOTICE
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Did you see that Robbie Williams has registered his name as a
Trade Mark? Historically, the progress of capitalism has
been marked by the creation of property rights in everything of
value. If ££-signs can be attached to it, it
must be capable of ownership, and profiteering.