Trademarks and Free Speech

My book will be published in print and digital versions by Cambridge University Press in January 2026 (for 20% off, use the code RAMSEY25); it is also for sale on Amazon

This book explores how trademark laws can conflict with the right to freedom of expression and proposes a framework for evaluating free speech challenges to trademark registration and enforcement laws. It also explains why granting trademark rights in informational terms, political messages, widely used phrases, decorative product features, and other language and designs with substantial pre-existing communicative value can harm free expression and fair competition. Lisa P. Ramsey encourages governments to not register or protect broad trademark rights in these types of inherently valuable expression. She also recommends that trademark statutes explicitly allow certain informational, expressive, and decorative fair uses of another's trademark, and proposes other speech-protective and pro-competitive reforms of trademark law for consideration by legislatures, courts, and trademark offices in the United States, Europe, and other countries.

Reviews

"This excellent book explores the troubled relationship between trademark protection and free expression. Lisa Ramsey successfully interweaves a description of the relevant trademark law with a critique of how it is framed and applied, while identifying the reforms needed adequately to protect free expression. It is an authoritative account deserving wide attention."

Jennifer Davis - Centre for Intellectual Property and Information Law, University of Cambridge

"Lisa Ramsey has established herself over time as one of the world’s leading scholars on the relationship of trademark law and free speech. Her rich scholarship on the topic is now systematized and expanded with the latest developments in this inspiring book. A must read for anyone interested in the subject!"

Christophe Geiger - Professor and Director of the Innovation Law and Ethics Observatory, Luiss University, Rome

"From registration to enforcement and secondary liability, this book reveals the chilling effect of current trademark law and practice on free speech. It also offers the ultimate cure. Lisa Ramsey synthesizes the full spectrum of regulatory approaches and scholarly thinking - across legal traditions and regions worldwide - in an unprecedented catalogue of reform proposals."

Martin Senftleben - Amsterdam Law School, author of The Copyright/Trademark Interface

"Lisa Ramsey's book is a comprehensive argument for reforming trademark law with greater attention to free speech principles. Rich with examples of overclaiming, it makes a strong case that both communication and product markets would be better off with a narrower trademark law focused on protecting consumers from deception that matters to them, rather than handing control of ordinary words to single owners across a broad swath of the economy."

Rebecca Tushnet - Frank Stanton Professor of the First Amendment, Harvard Law School