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Article: Using The Lanham Act to Combat Foreign Trademark Piracy.(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
- Article from:
- Franchising World
- Article date:
- July 1, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 International Franchise Association. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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American franchise companies have been slow to join the recent increase in the use of the Lanham Act to thwart piracy of their trademarks in foreign countries. Franchisors, like other American companies that expand into foreign countries, often discover that someone is already using their trademarks and service marks, or has registered them. Typically, the prior user or registrant is a "pirate" interested primarily in extracting payment from the American company when it enters the new country.
Pursuing the pirate under local law may or may not prove successful, because the pirate may arguably have superior rights under that law. Paying "ransom" to the pirate may ...