What is the exact nature of the right to a trademark? What is the basis of relief in trademark cases of unfair competition? Schechter unravels these problems as he traces the development of the law of trademarks from medieval times to the early twentieth century. ". . . invaluable for starting scholarly research." --Julius J. Marke, A Catalogue of the Law Collection of New York University (1953) 869 "Mr. Schechter has turned up much interesting and hitherto unpublished material concerning the use of guild and artisans' marks in the Middle Ages in England. His chapter (V) on "The Development of Trade Mark Law in the Cutlery Trades," is particularly valuable and contains matter not before in print. It makes understandable the reference to registers of the cutlers' companies in the English Trade Marks Act of 1875." --Edward S. Rogers, Michigan Law Review 24 (1925-1926) 98 Frank Isaac Schechter [1890-1937] received the first doctor of jurisprudence degree given by Columbia University. He was a practicing attorney and authority on trademark law. His father was Solomon Schechter, a Biblical scholar who was the president of the Jewish Theological Seminary and the founder of the United Synagogue of America.

Presenting a variety of historiographical approaches, this Research Handbook explores the historical development of trademarks and the associated commercial practices of branding. It has an international scope, covering trademark history in Australia, Israel, pre-modern Europe, Sweden, the UK and the US. Bringing together a carefully selected group of experts, this Research Handbook assesses a broad range of topics including registration systems, branding, distinctiveness, use and ownership, the role of colour, secondary liability and marks as property. It explores the nature and function of trademarks as well as the development of legislation and administrative frameworks regulating marks in the 19th and 20th centuries. In addition, it features important case studies on Guinness, Jaeger, Jaffa, and Swedish Match, and offers new insights into the history of the UK Trade Mark Registration Act and the US Lanham Act. Enriching understandings of the history of trademark law, this Research Handbook is an indispensable read for intellectual property scholars, legal historians and law students. Legal practitioners working in the intellectual property field will also find it to be a useful resource.

Tracing the emergence of what the media industries today call transmedia, story worlds, and narrative franchises, Legal Stories provides a dual history of copyright law and narrative-based media development between the Copyright Act of 1909 and the Copyright Act of 1976. Drawing on archival material, including legal case files, and employing the principles of actor-network theory, Gregory Steirer demonstrates how the meaning and form of narrative-based property in the twentieth century was integral to the letter and practice of intellectual property law during this time. Steirer’s expansive view of intellectual property law encompasses not only statutes and judicial opinions, but also the everyday practices and productions of authors, editors, fans, and other legal laypersons. The result is a history of the law as improvisatory and accident-prone, taking place as often outside the courtroom as inside, and shaped as much by laypersons as lawyers. Through the examination of influential legal disputes involving early properties such as Dashiell Hammett’s Sam Spade, H. P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos, and Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Barbarian, Steirer provides a ground’s eye view of how copyright law has operated and evolved in practice.