Challenging Issues of Taste Mark Protection

Abstract

Taste marks are regarded as one type of unconventional trademarks which cannot be visually perceived, and they have been protected under trademark laws in several countries. In practice, however, taste marks have never been successfully registered in such countries. This research aims to examine regulations of taste mark protection along with the obstacles hindering the registration. The researcher adopted the comparative law methodology by comparing the taste mark protection under the trademark laws of the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, the Republic of India, and Thailand. The findings show legal gaps in the taste mark registration process. These limitations and obstacles could hinder the development of new types of trademarks. Therefore, it is necessary to examine the regulations to define the scope of trademark protection which is based on criteria for defining legal terms, distinctive characters of taste, taste mark representations, as well as guidelines for graphical representations. Consequently, the researcher recommends amending Article 4 of the Trademark Act (B.E. 2534) and the Trademark Registration Handbook (B.E. 2565) to ensure the effective protection of taste marks and other types of unconventional trademarks.