Character Merchandising in Europe

Although the commercial activity of merchandising - the use of names or images or other representative elements to enhance the promotion or sale of products or services - has been known for over a century, it is only since the latter years of the 20th century that it has been significant enough to merit treatment as a distinct subject of intellectual property law. Yet, to date, no specific law governing merchandising exists in any country. This book asks if such a law should exist-specifically, a uniform law at the international level. The book focuses on the legal strategy and monitoring of merchandising campaigns of a cross-border nature in 17 European countries. Drawing on the local expertise of contributing authors from each country, it presents a detailed comparative analysis of the manifold legal issues related to merchandising practices. These include the following: the inadequacy of trade mark licenses to encompass the "affinity" motive of the purchaser of merchandising; the overlapping rights of a manufacturer and a merchandiser in the same product; deficiencies in unfair competition law concerning merchandising; the question of whether merchandising symbols could be registered in a manner analogous to (but distinct from) trade marks; the question of whether copyright law may be extended to protect the merchandising use of a copyrighted or copyrightable element; the ownership of merchandising rights; and the question of whether a merchandising right can persist after the protection of the symbol itself has lapsed. "Character Merchandising in Europe" marshals evidence that merchandising law, although it can hardly be said to exist as such, is nonetheless implied in an extensive body of pronouncements from the various fields of intellectual property law. This perception is supported by the first judicial decision on the protection of merchandising activities, recently rendered by the European Court of Justice and supplied in full text as an annexe to this volume.