Towards a new copyrighttrademark interface - why (and how) signs with cultural significance should be kept outside trademark law

Whereas there have been efforts and laws employed to “prevent overlaps between patent and trademark protection,” there is a need to create “comparably strong” borders around trademark and copyright law. One specific area where the need to increase the border between the two areas of IP is signs with cultural significance. Allowing trademark protection for signs having cultural significance creates a “blurring of [the] sign’s cultural meaning through the attachment of commercial connotations.” This chapter focuses on the need to “recalibrate the copyright/trademark interface,” especially in the realm of “preserving the cultural meaning of artworks as a basis for dialogue and discussion in the artistic domain.” This chapter concludes with “more robust grounds for refusal [to] allow the categorical exclusion of signs with cultural significance from trademark protection.”