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Trademark Dilution Act Signed into Law

By Andrew Raff

The Trademark Dilution Act was signed into law last week. The bill overturns the Supreme Court's requirement from Moseley v. V. Secret Catalogue, Inc. that in order to prevail on a trademark dilution claim, the plaintiff must establish the existence of actual dilution, not simply the likelihood of dilution.

Eric Goldman, Trademark Dilution Revision Act of 2006: "Ostensibly, this law was intended to overturn the Moseley case's requirement that plaintiffs show 'actual dilution' instead of a 'likelihood of dilution.' However, the act morphed into an omnibus dilution revision effort that reshapes dilution law on a number of fronts. The result is a mixed bag--there is a little good news mixed in with the bad."

Attorney(s) at Kaye Scholer: The Trademark Dilution Revision Act of 2006: A Major Overhaul of Federal Trademark Dilution Law: "On October 6, 2006, the President signed the Trademark Dilution Revision Act ("TDRA"), a significant revision of federal trademark law intended to clarify and amend the scope of protection afforded to "famous" marks under Section 43(c) of the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. §1125(c). While it addresses and resolves a number of issues that have arisen since the introduction of dilution protection to federal law in 1995, the TDRA, nonetheless, has the potential to create numerous other issues, thereby making it likely that dilution will remain a controversial and evolving aspect of trademark law for many years to come."

William McGeveran, Info/Law, Trademark Dilution Revision Act Becomes Law: "The dilution concept has long been criticized for separating a trademark claim from its conceptual moorings: in theory, the principal interest protected by trademark law has been to prevent consumers from being confused. But that theory has been highly attenuated for a long time, so maybe it is better to admit that trademark law now protects big companies? brand names for their own sake."

Previously: Chris Cohen shared some detailed first impressions of the bill.

Full post as published by Legislating IP on October 11, 2006 (boomark / email).