Trademark bullies will use the plan to shut down secondary resale markets
Nicholas Garcia, 2022 - Policy Counsel at Public Knowledge, focusing on emerging technologies, intellectual property, and closing the digital divide. JD, Georgetown “SHOP SAFE Act: The Trademark Timebomb Masquerading as Consumer Protection” 2/15, https://publicknowledge.org/shop-safe-act-the-trademark-timebomb-masquerading-as-consumer-protection/ //DH
The real beneficiaries of the SHOP SAFE Act are not consumers but big brands that want to aggressively pursue knockoffs, cheap competition products, and the secondary resale market. Trademarks can be extraordinarily broad, encompassing certain colors or even common words or phrases. Creating such an expansive regime of trademark liability online will inevitably lead to brands pursuing aggressive protection of anything they deem remotely infringing with little regard for SHOP SAFE’s intended purpose of protecting consumers. For example, the infamously litigious Monster Cable Products, Inc. has more than 70 trademarks on the word “monster” and has gone after auto transmissions, carpet-cleaning machines, mini-golf, people selling t-shirts, the job-hunting site monster.com, Monster energy drink, and even Disney over “Monsters Inc.” merchandise. It is easy to imagine how aggressive rightsholders will abuse SHOP SAFE by bullying platforms into settlements over meritless claims of infringement.