Book Title: Improving Intellectual Property: A Global Project

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Contemporary writings that undertake an interdisciplinary cultural analysis of intellectual property rights have been significantly influenced by Rochelle Dreyfuss' iconic article published over 30 years ago titled Expressive Genericity: Trademarks as Language in the Pepsi Generation. Famous marks can function like Barthesian myths with universal ideological codings that are recognized globally, enabling them to be read as polysemous texts that invite semiotic recodings. Audiences and consumers today inevitably engage with marks in many ways beyond their source-designating function, and this chapter explores the reach of Dreyfuss' prescient article in judicial decisions and academic commentaries