Dimitar Trendafilov
Legislation On Ensuring Fair Competition in Trademarks
Summary:
The purpose of developing trademarks as a tool in economic activity and in marketing practice, in particular, is to establish a distinction for the products of its owner, serving both his/her interests and those of consumers as concerns to the absence of delusions and unambiguous awareness of the origin of goods and services. However, how this differentiation is achieved and protected in a regulated way against deliberate or apparently good faith encroachments is the subject of legislation that does not always manage to set clear criteria and at least needs several points of view and interpretations. In this context, the article derives and interprets selected texts from the most important national and international normative acts (such as the Paris Convention, the EU Regulation and the local competition law), and at the end points out an exemplary litigation that arose on the basis of "similarity" to a well-known brand, considered unfair competition.
