Balancing Trademark and Free Speech Rights in Trademark Registration and Enforcement Laws

We are pleased to announce that the NZCIP, in conjunction with the Public Policy Institute, will host a talk by Professor Lisa Ramsey at 5.30 pm on Thursday, 13 March 2025 and the Auckland Law School. 

About this event

The New Zealand Centre for Intellectual Property, New Zealand Centre for Human Rights Law, Policy and Practice and the Public Policy Institute are pleased to invite you to this event. Trademark laws are government regulations of language and other types of expression used to communicate about the source of goods or services. Unfortunately, some trademark laws today stifle the communication of non-misleading messages protected by the right to freedom of expression. Among other things, they allow the trademark registration of subject matter that should arguably remain in the public domain for use by others in connection with the advertising and sale of their products. In this presentation I argue that the free expression right in the United States, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and other countries imposes limits on what subject matter can qualify as a trademark. Governments should also ensure that their trademark enforcement laws contain speech-protective and pro-competitive rules that allow informational and expressive uses of another’s mark that are not likely to mislead about a product’s source, and decorative uses of words, colours, and creative works that had intrinsic attention-grabbing value before they were claimed as a mark by another.

Lisa Ramsey is a Professor of Law at the University of San Diego School of Law. She is an expert on trademark law and has given presentations on trademark law to attorneys, professors, and students throughout the United States and around the world. Professor Ramsey’s scholarship focuses on potential conflicts between trademark laws and free speech rights.