Thomas McCarthy, Jennifer Lee Taylor, Michael Miller, and
Sabrina Larson authored an article for Bloomberg
Law explaining antitrust principles that trademark
practitioners should be aware of after a recent Second Circuit
decision reaffirmed that agreements with a plausible trademark
protection rationale and trademark enforcement efforts are
presumptively procompetitive.
"In the 2007 joint report on Antitrust Enforcement and
Intellectual Property Rights, the Department of Justice and the
Federal Trade Commission noted that '[o]ver the past several
decades, antitrust enforcers and the courts have come to recognize
that intellectual property laws and antitrust laws share the same
fundamental goals of enhancing consumer welfare and promoting
innovation,'" the authors wrote. "The report's
modern view conveyed that 'intellectual property and antitrust
laws work in tandem to bring new and better technologies, products,
and services to consumers at lower prices.' This was
