FUNCTIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF TRADE MARK AND TRADE MARK RIGHTS IN EUROPE

Abstract

There has been a rapid change in the nature of trade marks in the last decades. With the discovery of “brand image” by trade mark holders, a modern trade mark has commenced to signify the additional functions which can be identified as the quality guarantee and the investment, advertising or communication functions as well as its essential function of indicating commercial origin. The European case law has recently responded to this change by expanding the exclusive rights given to trade mark under Article 5(1) (a) of the Trade Marks Directive (TMD). However, use of trade mark on products started in European societies as early as the Ancient Times. Trade mark rights have been developing and expanding since the rights for safeguarding the trade mark use first appeared in Europe. To understand better the reasons of today’s trade mark rights expansion, we will try to explore the functional development of trade mark and trade mark rights through the European history in this article.