An Interdisciplinary Inquiry into the Foundations of Trademark Law

The assessment of any legal system, such as trademark law, requires a comprehensive understanding of that system, and this can be made possible only through awareness of the objectives and foundations of that system. This awareness in trademark law helps us interpret better, especially where there are no statutes. Trademark law is highly influenced by both moral and legal issues and the basics of market economy because trademark has fully economic dimensions as well, and the existence of trademark depends on the economic efficiency of the market. This highlights the necessity of an interdisciplinary approach with the aim of understanding this supportive system. Natural law theory and contractual theory legally justify the protection of trademark. Beside these two theories, the search cost theory and incentive of producers, as two important economic factors, justify the protection of trademark even more powerfully. Nonetheless, trademark legal system relies on all these foundations and each of them is necessary to interpret trademark law.