What is Trademark Misuse?
Trademark Misuse is a largely theoretical argument about how a trademark holder can use its rights. It would be similar to the defenses brought in copyright and patent cases, which dictate that if the owner of the intellectual property rights (e.g. a patent or copyright) over-exerts its rights (e.g forces someone to buy an unrelated product to gain acess to the protected work), then the copyright or patent holder loses its right to sue for infringement. Recently, the theory was employed in challenging Network Solutions’ dispute policy which held that registered trademark holders had the right to have Network Solutions immediately freeze any allegedly infringing domain names until the dispute was settled. It was argued that often claims with little or no support were being alleged by registered trademark holders so as to prevent possibly infringing sites from materializing. Although the trademark holder’s registration (and rights) were not cancelled, the argument that giving “extra” rig
