Trade Marks and Digital Markets

• Credit value: 30 credits at Level 7
• Convenor and tutor: Henrique Carvalho
• Assessment: a 500-word analytical report (10%) and 3500-word research essay (90%)

Political economists and business managers have identified attention as an increasingly valuable commodity in digital markets, forcing lawyers to rethink key concepts and functions of trade mark law. This module is an invitation to understand the role of trade mark law in the construction of brands, as well as the role of brands in the attention economy, by looking at how trade mark law has adapted to respond to disputes about the use of trade marks in cyberspace.

Can intermediaries be held responsible for fakes sold or advertised on their platforms? Can a company use a competitor’s mark to generate traffic to its website? Can cultural critique survive in an age of automate enforcement of intellectual property rights? These are some of the questions we will tackle in this module, alongside deeper reflections on the construction and cultural significance of brands and their conversion to capital.

Indicative module syllabus

• The cultural politics of brands
• Brands, attention economy and affective labour
• Brands, trade marks and passing off
• Trade mark registration: in practice
• Trade mark infringement: key concepts
• Online trade mark use
• Online trade mark infringement
• Online trade mark enforcement
• Territorial aspects of trade mark law
• Critical reflections of trade mark law

By the end of this module, you will be able to:

• understand trade mark use and enforcement on the internet
• analyse contemporary theoretical perspectives on the attention economy, digital labour and value creation
• develop a nuanced understanding of the economic and cultural functions of trade marks
• critique dominant justifications of trade mark law with a focus on the role of consumer and new technologies.