TRIPS and Trade Marks

TRIPS and Trade Marks
Guy Tritton, Barrister, London

While trade marks have only become a TRIPS issue in the recent dispute resolution on plain packaging, the agreement as such has confirmed the notion of trade marks as proprietary rights that can find protection even beyond confusion. Approaches to further strengthen trade mark rights seem to have come from elsewhere, e.g. the CJEU, though. Will trade mark rights irretrievably move beyond the concept of origin confusion and towards the exclusive right of determining image and perception? And how has technology (AI, internet, social media) changed the traditional concepts of trade mark law?