Kyriakos Drivas, University of Piraeus

Please join us for a webinar on Tuesday the 16th of October 2018 at 11:00 GMT (i.e. 12:00 Brussels time, 13:00 Athens time). The speaker is Kyriakos Drivas, University of Piraeus.

The title of the talk is “Trademark Opposition and Proximity". The moderator will be Dr. Andreas Panagopoulos.

To participate and for further information, please contact Dr. Andreas Panagopoulos at least a day prior to the seminar.

The program we use to deliver webinars is called VSee and you can easily download it for free.  A very short demo of VSee can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDb7-Mrz0L4.

Abstract: This paper examines whether geographic and structural proximity plays a role in the rate of trademark opposition. I draw the population of oppositions from both the EUIPO and USPTO which include approximately two hundred and one hundred and fifty thousand trademark applications that have been opposed respectively. Preliminary findings show that for the case of EUIPO (USPTO) home bias plays a significant role; i.e. a large share of oppositions come from opposes in the same country (state). Structural proximity also plays a significant role. Geographic and demographic distance also plays a role. The only study in trademark opposition is by von Graevenitz (2009) who uses data from EUIPO and provides significant insights on firms' behavior. This is the first study that examines the role of proximity in trademark opposition and also uses data from USPTO.  Findings point to significant spillovers that have potentially preceded trademark opposition. They are also relevant to the litigation literature where information failures have been identified as one of the main culprits of such behavior.