Bad Faith in Trademark Law

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The Bucerius IP Colloquium - a lecture series initiated by Prof. Dr. Dana Beldiman and Prof. Dr. Linda Kuschel - gives young scientists the opportunity to present their respective field of research. On this evening, Ingrida Karina-Berzina - doctoral candidate at Stockholm University - will present an analysis of bad faith in trademark law in Europe, the United States and under the UDRP.

Bad faith is one of the absolute grounds for trademark invalidity under the Trade Mark Directive and the EU Trade Mark Regulation, and under the Lanham Act in the United States. Similarly, a right-holder seeking to gain control of a cybersquatted domain name under the Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP) must prove bad faith registration and use of the disputed domain name. A substantial body of case law and UDRP decisions has emerged. The Court of Justice has stated that bad faith is an autonomous concept of European law. However, “bad faith” is not defined in statutes, and the precise boundaries of the concept remain indeterminate.