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"Section C: Trademark and Traditional Knowledge" [2008] ELECD 177; in Dinwoodie, B. Graeme; Janis, D. Mark (eds), "Trademark Law and Theory" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2008)

Book Title: Trademark Law and Theory

Editor(s): Dinwoodie, B. Graeme; Janis, D. Mark

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781845426026

Section Title: Section C: Trademark and Traditional Knowledge

Number of pages: 2

Extract:

15 Online word of mouth and its implications
for trademark law
Eric Goldman*



I. Introduction
It is already well-understood that the Internet is a major new medium for
human communication.1 It is less well understood how this new medium
should affect trademark law. Trademark law is wrestling with cybersquat-
ting/domainers,2 the sale of keyword-triggered ads and other high-profile
Internet trademark disputes, but I believe that "online word of mouth" poses
the most important challenge to Internet trademark law.
"Word of mouth" describes the process of transmitting information from
person to person. In commercial contexts, word of mouth involves consumers
sharing their opinions about marketplace offerings with each other, often
through everyday conversations.
Offline, consumer word of mouth plays a major role in the marketplace by
disciplining some brands and rewarding others, but a person's views typically
reach only a limited number of people. In contrast, the Internet helps create
new word of mouth content (otherwise foreclosed by higher offline communi-
cation costs) and disseminate word of mouth to new and previously unreach-
able audiences.
The broad reach of online word of mouth gives consumers tremendous


* Eric Goldman, Assistant Professor of Law and Director, High Tech Law
Institute, Santa Clara University School of Law. Email: egoldman@gmail.com.
Website: http://www.ericgoldman.org. I was General Counsel of Epinions.com from
2000 to 2002. Thanks to Graeme Dinwoodie, Mark Janis, Mark Lemley, Michael
Risch, Rebecca Tushnet, Fred von Lohmann, Tal Zarsky and the participants ...