Expansive regulation reduces trademark protection on small platforms
Lance 20 (Holly Lance, Office of Policy and International Affairs, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, “: Comments of Engine Advocacy in Response to Secondary Trademark Infringement Liability in the E-Commerce Setting,” USPTO Letter, December 28th, 2020, https://static1.squarespace.com/static/571681753c44d835a440c8b5/t/5ff37a915abd827cadbf968f/1609792145348/2020.12.28_Comments+to+Docket+PTO+T+2020+0035.pdf Accessed July 1st, 2024) cpsw-sns
These and numerous other examples reveal what is at stake. Not only must policymakers proceed with caution when considering changes to the law, because it would hurt startups and hinder competition and innovation, but there are also other interests. Shifting liability to platforms for alleged infringement they have no knowledge of or involvement in would: give rise to “concerns about freedom of expression” and “free access to information,” implicate legitimate uses of someone else’s trademarks online, and restrict the “development of new technologies, including those capable of both infringing and non-infringing uses.”38 It would require platforms to “radically contract” their legitimate offerings, which would hurt small businesses, Internet users, Internet-enabled creators, and consumers that do (or could) rely on such marketplaces.39 And that “overreactive impulse [to over-takedown] carries a disparate impact on small businesses and smaller platforms, who are often ill equipped to defend themselves against potentially false claims of contributory infringement.”40 *