Recommended Reading: Prof. Lisa P. Ramsey: Trademarks and Free Speech - Conflicts and Resolutions

Cambridge University Press has just published Trademarks and Free Speech: Conflicts and Resolutions, by Lisa P. Ramsey, Professor of Law at the University of San Diego School of Law.  Professor Ramsey has given presentations throughout the United States and around the world about how certain trademark laws may conflict with the right to freedom of expression.

This book explores how trademark laws can conflict with the right to freedom of expression and proposes a framework for evaluating free speech challenges to trademark registration and enforcement laws. It also explains why granting trademark rights in informational terms, political messages, widely used phrases, decorative product features, and other language and designs with substantial pre-existing communicative value can harm free expression and fair competition. Lisa P. Ramsey encourages governments to not register or protect broad trademark rights in these types of inherently valuable expression. She also recommends that trademark statutes explicitly allow certain informational, expressive, and decorative fair uses of another’s trademark, and proposes other speech-protective and pro-competitive reforms of trademark law for consideration by legislatures, courts, and trademark offices in the United States, Europe, and other countries.

There will be a book launch on May 7, 2026, 2:30 PM to 4:00 PM, at UCL Laws, Bentham House, Endsleigh Gardens, London WC1H 0EG. Book ticket here.

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Text Copyright John L. Welch 2026.