Reconstruction of functions of trademark from view of competition law

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26380145
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: New fields of law
• Research Institution: University of Tsukuba
• Principal Investigator: Shiomi Hisao 筑波大学, ビジネスサイエンス系, 教授 (80304567)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 商標権 / 出所表示機能 / 保護対象 / 権利濫用 / フェアユース

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study shows that function of origin in trademark law becomes important in other areas of intellectual property rights such as copyright and patent right; Function of origin is found to be developed into significant factor particularly in internet by law and economics analysis. On the other hand, from competition law perspective, expansion of trade mark right by diluting function of origin is turned out to harm free use of trademarks.
These findings in trademark law are also discovered in similar situations in laws of creation (copyright law, patent law): Fair Use, private use and the liability of intermediary in copyright law, and Enforcement of essential patents, license and the award for damages in patent law. This phenomena demonstrates that trademark doctrines such as consumer protection, abuse of rights, function of origin etc. could be applied to more fields in copyright law and patent law than previous studies have expected.

Free Research Field

知的財産法