Shaming won’t stop bullying
Leah Chan Grinvald, 2021 – * Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Law, Suffolk University School of Law. “Trademark Enforcement and Statutory Incentives” https://scholars.law.unlv.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2390&context=facpub //DH
One downside to over-enforcement may cause the balance of benefits to sway the other way—the potential for shaming by the trademark owner’s consumers or the broader public.121 In these days of over-sharing on social media, it is easy for recipients of abusive ceaseand-desist letters to post them or share that they have received such demands.122 Unfortunately, though, the prospect of shaming or being labeled a “#trademarkbully” does not deter all entities, and additionally, not all shaming is successful.123 Given that there are no provisions in the Lanham Act that penalize entities for over-enforcing their marks, some entities could see only benefits to enforcement. Post-Romag, these benefits have potentially increased.