《Advertising and the Public Interest- Legal Protection of Trade Symbols》.pdf

Citation: 57 Yale L.J. 1947-1948 Content downloaded/printed from HeinOnline () Fri Jan 9 12:47:44 2009 -- Your use of this HeinOnline PDF indicates your acceptance of HeinOnlines Terms and Conditions of the license agreement availalbe at: /HOL/License -- The search text of this PDF is generated from uncorrected OCR text. -- To obtain permission to use this article beyond the scope of your HeinOnline license, please use: /ccc/basicSearch.do?operation=gosearchType=0 lastSearch=simpleall=ontitleOrStdNo=0044-0094 THE YALE LAW JOURNAL VOLUME 57 JUNE, 1948 NuMBm 7 ADVERTISING AND THE PUBLIC INTEREST: LEGAL PROTECTION OF TRADE SYMBOLS RALPH S. BROWN, JR.* The protecton of trade-marks is the laws recognition of the psychological function of symbols. If it is true that we live by symbols, it is no less true that we purchase goods by them. A trade- mark is a merchandising short-cut which induces a purchaser to select what he wants, or what he has been led to believe he wants. The owner of a mark exploits this human propensity by making every effort to impregnate the atmosphere of the market with the drawing power of a congenial symbol. Whatever the means em- ployed. the end is the same-to convey through the mark, in the minds of potential customers, the desirability of the commodity upon which it appears. Once this is attained, the trade-mark owner has something of value. If another poaches upon the com- mercial magnetism of the symbol he has created, the owner c