> That’s not accurate. Trademark law does require active policing and enforcement, and failure to enforce a trademark can be grounds for losing it.
Do you have some actual examples of this? Trademarks which were cancelled not for lack of use (a real reason) but for lack of enforcement ? I don't think that's a thing, which is why I'm asking.
It's true that genericisation is at least a potential threat, although I think many businesses would say that's a great problem to have (your mark can't become generic if people aren't familiar with it, and if they're familiar with it that means you sure have sold a whole lot of product, the real examples of genericisation are famous successful companies such as Xerox or Hoover, hardly stories of failure).
But also this isn't about genericisation anyway. Mere mentions aren't actionable. That's what is insidious about it, you can sue people who are no threat to your mark at all, and the likes of Disney do that all the time. But you can't (successfully) sue people who mention your mark in a way that just contributes to eventual genericisation.
It's a good question, and I don't specifically. I've heard this advise from lawyers in various different fields (not specifically Trademark lawyers), but when I go digging for examples, or the specific legislative history, most of my searching ends with "there's no a clear, definitive case on this topic".
So, in a lot of ways, I think you're right to challenge this assertion. It seems more like a recommendation that comes from "an abundance of caution" rather than a clear legal ruling, but I think I was wrong when I definitely stated that "trademark law does require active policing and enforcement". It seems like it might be more accurate to say: "some lawyers believe trademark law may require active policing and enforcement"
> some lawyers believe trademark law may require active policing and enforcement
That's definitely true. Of course we might observe that it sure is convenient that Trademark lawyers believe you should hire more Trademark lawyers... If this is their honest belief then even if it wasn't true they aren't committing fraud since fraud requires dishonesty. So that's nice.
That’s not accurate. Trademark law does require active policing and enforcement, and failure to enforce a trademark can be grounds for losing it.
Yes, big corps probably are more aggressive than the law requires, but it’s a pretty fuzzy, not super well defined, line.