Quality assurance, in licensing
Quality assurance is a vital part of trademark
licensing, because where there is unfettered use of a mark by another party, a
trademark will lose its ability to identify a single source. If such
uncontrolled use continues it may lead to the inadvertent abandonment of
the licensor/owner's trademark rights. Assuring quality may require provisions
drafted into the license for adequate restrictions on use, and supervision of
the quality of the underlying goods and the use of the mark itself.
Quality of defendant's goods
One of the purposes of trademark law is to permit
competition on the basis of quality. Since a positive experience with a certain
brand of product is likely to yield repeat business for that company's brand,
the consumer can send a message about quality satisfaction to companies based
on repeat sales of the lack thereof. When a company infringes another company's
mark, that deprives the trademark owner of consumer feedback on the quality
issue. Furthermore, if the defendant's goods are of a lesser quality, that
results in harm to the plaintiff's reputation. Such harm, if it can be
quantified, is compensable as a measure of damages in cases in which a court
decides to award monetary relief.
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Posted in: Glossary
