Ditch the law journals - if you want to learn about trade mark
law, all you need to do is follow celebrity gossip. Within the
space of just a few weeks we've had three very instructive
stories.
First, Taylor Swift gets a right bollicking from her peers for
having the temerity to register certain of her lyrics as trade
marks for a range of merchandise. Lyrics like 'This Sick
Beat' and 'Cause We Never Go out Of
Style'. A certain Ben Norton - who one can't help
noticing seems to be far less well known than Taylor Swift - is so
aggrieved by Swift's grubby commercialism that he describes
trade marks as 'a direct attack on one of the most
fundamental and inalienable rights of all – our freedom of
expression'. He classes Swift as
'bourgeoisie', one of those horrible grasping
little people who, if you give them an inch, 'will take a
mile, and everything else you have in the process.'
Dreadful people who have 'already privatized land, water
and words.'
