\(
\def\WIPO{World Intellectual Property Organisation}
\)
Files
Details
Title
Trademarks Squatters : Evidence from Chile.
Variant Title
Economic Research Working Paper No. 22
Item Type
Working paper
Description
55 pages ; [28] cm.
ISSN
2957-8256
Summary
This paper explores the phenomenon of "trademark squatting" - a situation in which someone other than the original brand owner obtains a trademark on a brand. The authors develop a model that shows how squatting results from market uncertainty that leads brand owners to rationally forgo registering trademarks, creating opportunities for squatting. They create an algorithm to identify squatters in the Chilean trademark register and show empirically that squatting is a persistent and systematic phenomenon. Using data on trademark oppositions, the authors find that squatting leads brand owners that have been exposed to squatting to "over-protect" their brands by registering disproportionately many trademarks and covering classes other than those directly related to their products and services. Trademark squatting, therefore, creates a strategic, albeit excessive, response by brand owners which inflates trademark filings.
Series
Type of File
Digital publication.
Series
Economics Working Papers.
Translations
Published
[Geneva, Switzerland] : [World Intellectual Property Organization], 2014.
Language
English
Record Appears in
WIPO Publications > English
Economic Research Working Papers
Economic Research Working Papers