Using Linguistic Tools and Thinking in Trademark Cases

Abstract

Chapter 2 briefly described some of the analytical tools available to linguists. Mentioned were phonetics and phonology, morphology, lexicography, syntax, and meaning (semantics and pragmatics). Chapters 4 through 13 described actual trademark cases in which various these tools were used. For purposes of emphasis, I now offer a summary of which linguistic tools and techniques were used in each case. The most frequently used tools were morphological and semantic analyses, with phonetic and lexicographical analyses slightly less frequent. In these cases, the use of syntactic and pragmatic analyses was somewhat surprisingly uncommon.