The Story of Luxury Products and the (Broken) Promise of Superior Product Quality in a World of Prestige for the Masses

• Main Author: CALBOLI, Irene
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2015
• Subjects: luxury trademarks; trademark protection; trademark infringement; trademark dilution; luxury industry; anti-dilution protection; Intellectual Property Law; International Trade Law; Law and Society
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sol_research/1603; https://search.library.smu.edu.sg/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma99113261002601&context=L&vid=65SMU_INST:SMU_NUI&lang=en&search_scope=Everything&adaptor=Local%20Search%20Engine&tab=Everything&query=any,contains,The%20Luxury%20Economy%20and%20Intellectual%20Property:%20Critical%20Reflections&offset=0
• Institution: Singapore Management University

This chapter examines the legal protection of luxury trademarks. These marks are often protected not only against trademark infringement, but also against trademark dilution because they are considered to be famous marks. More specifically, the chapter addresses the relationship between this protection and the promise of superior quality that luxury products generally convey to the public. It considers the evolution of the luxury industry and its progressive shift away from products of superior quality toward embracing also a culture of prestige for the masses, or “masstige”—certainly a more profitable aim, but one less focused on a tradition of superior product quality and exclusivity, and in turn less deserving of anti-dilution protection.