Trademark trolls don’t exist

There are enforcement issues with trademark law and practice. However, trademark law and practice do not suffer from a troll problem for the reasons explained. Those reasons include: the trademark use requirement, Congress’ and ICANN’s response and careful planning to address issues concerning domain names, the availability and widespread use of opposition and cancellation proceedings at the USPTO, Supreme Court precedent addressed to patent trolls applied in trademark cases, litigation and strategic advantages available to patent trolls not present in trademark cases, enforcement of consumer protection laws against patent trolls, shared appellate jurisdiction over trademark cases, and an early appellate case dealing harshly with a trademark troll. If the use requirement and the prohibitions on naked licensing and assignments in gross are discarded or weakened, a trademark troll problem could develop in the United States similar to that in other countries. The problem may not be as severe as the patent troll issue, likely because of the other reasons directed at why a trademark troll problem may not exist.