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The UCL Institute of Brand and Innovation Law aims to track the real world impact of trade marks via a dedicated series of roundtables, seminars and publications.
Trade mark protection is generally justified on the basis that it enhances consumer welfare by promoting market transparency and furthering fair competition. However trade mark protection is not always wholly positive, and can give rise to social justice concerns. Because trade mark law can be used to control the flow of information, it can come into conflict with freedom of expression. Brand holders seek to prevent social commentary on their brands, values or behaviours made via the medium of parody. Commercial entities can (and do) seek to register signs which have particular cultural or religious significance to particular communities with which the applicant has no connection. Doctrines eschew the minority's perception of a mark, focusing instead on the impact and meaning that it has to an 'average consumer'.
The IBIL Trade Mark Law and Social Justice Series aims to track the real world impact of trade marks. It aims to focus particularly on the needs of minority and marginalised groups whose interests can be easily overlooked within our trade mark system.
In this section, we feature IBIL publications relating to trade mark law and social justice. For a full list of publications, visit our Research page here.
- IBIL Trade Marks and Social Justice Roundtables
Stakeholder roundtables will feature as a regular part of IBIL’s Trade Marks and Social Justice series. Operating under the Chatham House rule, these meetings will bring trade mark academics together with key stakeholders to foster in-depth discussions and exchange of insights and expertise.
Next event:
'Strategic brand signalling: Trade marks, advertising, and body image perceptions in the UK' - 16 June 2025, organised in conjunction with the School of Law, University of Warwick
Forthcoming events:
Reappropriation and trade mark registration - September 2025
- Publications
Ilanah Fhima, 'Multiculturalism, Minority Language Rights and Trademark Law: Protecting the Less-Than-Average Consumer' (2025) Trademark Reporter (forthcoming).
Ilanah Fhima, 'Diversity and Trade Mark Law' (2025) 74(4) GRUR International 305.
Luminita Olteanu, 'Riding on the coat-tails of traditional cultural expressions' (2021) 34 International Journal for the Semiotics of Law 861.
Ilanah Simon Fhima, 'Trade Marks and Free Speech' (2013) 44 IIC 293.
- Other events
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- Policy Contributions
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- Other
Material falling outside the main categories will be posted here.
Picture credit: wildpixel
