Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2008
Abstract
In the global economy of the twenty-first century, "coca-colanization" has become a painful economic reality for developing nations. With new branding strategies and a legal protection regime that favors the famous marks of global monopolists, local businesses are not only losing market share, they are also losing their ability to compete in a new environment where leveraged marks often have little relevance to the actual value of the products or services for local consumers. To counter these trends, and add rationality to the global trademark regime, developing countries must develop new strategies and a conscious policy that not only values local identities, but actually helps create them. These new policies require a re-imagination of the purposes behind trademark law, including the use of trademarks in connection with the maintenance and commercialization of traditional values, and a reconnection between enforcement and local market necessities. Without a carefully calibrated policy designed to enhance the competitive abilities of local identities, coca-colanization will continue to erect barriers to competition that cannot be overcome, even using the latest tools of the global electronic marketplace.
Recommended Citation
Doris Estelle Long, Is Fame All There is? - Beating Global Monopolists at Their Own Marketing Game, 40 Geo. Wash. Int'l L. Rev. 123 (2008).
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