Ordinary
people, as well as businesses and entrepreneurs, use other people’s
trademarks all the time – legally. But perceptions are skewed by
continual emphasis on the power of intellectual property rights owners
to exclude, rather than on people’s rights to use another’s trademarks.
But clients ask lawyers every day: “Can I use this mark in this way?”
Professor McCarthy will discuss the various ways that those other than
the trademark owner can make proper and legal use of another’s marks.
This involves looking at categories like non-confusing uses, fair uses
and uses which do not dilute a famous mark.
Biography:
J.
Thomas McCarthy is a Senior Professor at the University of San
Francisco School of Law, where he has been on the faculty for over
forty years. He is the Founding Director of the McCarthy Institute of
Intellectual Property and Technology Law.
Professor
McCarthy is the author of the seven-volume treatise "Trademarks and
Unfair Competition," published by Thomson-West. This book is in its
Fourth Edition and has been in print for almost thirty five years. This
treatise has been cited as authority in over 2500 judicial decisions.
He isalso the author of the two volume treatise, "The Rights of
Publicity and Privacy," and the reference book, "McCarthy's Desk
Encyclopedia of Intellectual Property."
His
most recent articles are: Dilution of a trademark: European and United
States law compared, 94 Trademark Reporter 1163 (November-December
2004) andProving a Trademark Has Been Diluted: Theories or Facts? 41
Houston Law Review 713 (2004).
He
received the 2003 President’s Award from the International Trademark
Association; the 2000 Pattishall Medal for excellence in teaching
trademark law from the Brand Names Education Foundation and the
Centennial Award in Trademark Law from the American Intellectual
Property Law Associationin 1997.
He
is a consultant “of counsel” with Morrison & Foerster in San
Francisco. He is an avid watercolor painter, winning prizes at the
Contra Costa County fair for several years.
