We were delighted to host the events for The CREATe Trade Mark Seminar Series, Summer 2026. Both talks will be held online this term. Full details, including dates, abstracts and biographies, can be found below.
As previously announced, the CREATe Trade Mark Seminar Series comprises two online talks about trade mark law each term: one on trade mark history, and one on innovative methodologies in researching current trade mark law.
The Series was launched in Spring 2022, with talks from Dr Jennifer Davis (University of Cambridge) on nineteenth century trade mark history, and an interdisciplinary team from NYU – Prof. Barton Beebe, Dr Roy Germano, Prof. Christopher Jon Sprigman and Prof. Joel H. Steckel – on experimental methods.
It has since also included presentations about trade marks and empirical methods by Prof. Florent Thouvenin (University of Zurich) and Daniel Gerber (University of Basel), Dr Zhihao Zhang (University of Virginia), Prof. Ian Ayres (Yale Law School), Dr Xiyin Tang (UCLA School of Law) with commentator Prof. Paul Heald (University of Illinois School of Law), Prof. Ilanah Fhima (UCL), Dr Xiaoren Wang (CREATe Fellow and University of Dundee) with commentator Prof. Barton Beebe, Dr Emma Perot (UWI St Augustine), Prof. Stefan Bechtold (ETH Zurich), Prof. Sonia K. Katyal (Berkeley Center for Law and Technology) and Prof. Kris Erickson (CREATe) and Weiwei Yi (CREATe) with commentator Prof. Aniket Kesari (Fordham Law School).
The trade mark history strand has included talks by Prof. Oren Bracha (University of Texas), Prof. Dev Gangjee (University of Oxford), Dr Jose Bellido (University of Kent) and Prof. Kathy Bowrey (University of New South Wales), Dr Barbara Lauriat (Texas Tech University School of Law), Dr Elena Cooper (CREATe) and Prof. David Higgins (Newcastle University Business School) with commentator Prof. Alison Firth (University of Surrey), Dr Andrew Ventimiglia (Illinois State University), Prof. Michael Birnhack (Tel Aviv University), Dr Zvi Rosen (Southern Illinois University), Dr Jocelyn Bosse (Queen’s University Belfast), Dr Elena Cooper and Prof. David Higgins with commentator Dr Jennifer Davis and Prof. Kali Murray (Marquette University Law School).
Zoom links for the seminars are emailed a few days before the events to all on The CREATe Trade Mark Seminar Series mailing list. There is no need to RSVP. To join the mailing list, please contact Elena Cooper: elena.cooper@glasgow.ac.uk
To propose a paper for a future seminar in the Series, please email the convenors: Elena Cooper (trade mark history) and Xiaoren Wang (innovative methods for researching current trade mark law).
SEMINAR 1: INNOVATIVE METHODOLOGIES FOR RESEARCHING CURRENT TRADE MARK LAW
Time and place: Wednesday 10 June 2026, 2pm to 3pm, UK time, online only.
Speakers: Prof. Christopher Buccafusco (Duke University), Prof. Jonathan Masur (University of Chicago) and Prof. Ryan Whalen (University of Hong Kong).
Chair: Dr Xiaoren Wang, CREATe Fellow and University of Dundee.
Title: Measuring the Value of Trademark Distinctiveness: Evidence From the Market for Bordeaux Wine
Abstract: The market value of distinctive trademarks is a fundamental assumption of both trademark law and marketing theory. However, there is little empirical evidence underlying this assumption. We examine the relationship between brand dissimilarity and market prices in the context of the Bordeaux wine market. Using a unique dataset covering thousands of wines and their associated prices and professional ratings, we find that brand distinctiveness is related to higher wine prices. We further show that this relationship persists across the wine quality spectrum, with both lower quality and higher quality wines benefiting from dissimilar marks. Finally, we show that while there is a dissimilarity price premium for lower quality wines, producers who invest in higher quality wines are rewarded with an even greater premium for dissimilar names in absolute dollar terms.
Biographies:
Christopher Buccafusco is the Edward & Ellen Schwarzman Distinguished Professor of Law at the School of Law, Duke University. His research covers a wide range of topics and methods related to creativity, innovation, and intellectual property law. He uses novel social science experiments to explore the nature of innovation markets, and he writes about evolving issues in copyright, patent, and trademark law, including music copyright litigation, artificial intelligence, pharmaceutical patents, and IP rights for industrial design. For the past decade, Buccafusco has co-hosted an annual workshop on empirical methods in intellectual property law with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office and Northwestern University Law School.
Jonathan Masur is the John P. Wilson Professor of Law, Director of the Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz Program in Behavioral Law, Finance and Economics, David and Celia Hilliard Research Scholar at the Law School, the University of Chicago. He received a BS in physics and an AB in political science from Stanford University and his JD from Harvard Law School. After graduating from law school, he clerked for Chief Judge Marilyn Hall Patel of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California and for Judge Richard A. Posner of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Professor Masur’s research and teaching interests include patent law, administrative law, behavioural law and economics, criminal law, and the wines of Bordeaux.
Ryan Whalen is an Associate Professor and the Director of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Legal Studies in the Faculty of Law, the University of Hong Kong. His research takes a data-driven approach to understanding the law and legal systems, with a particular focus on intellectual property law and innovation policy. His work has appeared in a wide variety of journals including the University of Chicago Law Review, Research Policy, Science & Public Policy, the Northwestern University Law Review, the Yale Law Journal Forum, the Michigan State Law Review, and the Journal of the Patent and Trademark Office Society. Prior to joining HKU Ryan served on the faculties at the National University of Singapore and Dalhousie University, and as a visiting scholar at the University of Chicago and the University of Glasgow.
SEMINAR 2: TRADE MARK HISTORY
Time and place: Postponed to Spring Term 2027, online only.
Speaker: Dr Michael Pritchard.
Chair: Dr Elena Cooper, CREATe, University of Glasgow.
Title: Trade Marks and the Business of Photography in the Nineteenth Century
Abstract: In this presentation, an historian of photography will look at the use of trade marks by photographic businesses in the second half of the nineteenth century. A full abstract will follow shortly.
Biography:
Dr Michael Pritchard is a well-known historian of photography, having formerly worked for the Royal Photographic Society (as Chief Executive and Director of Programmes) and for Christie’s (as a photography specialist and then Director and International Business Director for collectibles across the company). He is a consultant on the Tate’s forthcoming exhibition Light and Magic: The Birth of Art Photography which opens this October. Michael’s publications include A History of Photography in 50 Cameras (Bloomsbury) and A Directory of London Photographers 1841-1908 (Photoresearch). He is currently working on a comprehensive history of the Royal Photographic Society, from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day.