For example, owners of Xerox, Kleenex or Bandaid brands regularly ask people not to use those marks when they have no idea who made a particular product and may not care. Children ask for Barbie dolls, Lego building blocks and Hot Wheels cars. Adults may wish for Ferarri automobiles, but more buy Toyota or Honda brands. Individual consumers may care for none of these brands. Yet, such consumers should be as grateful as those who seek those brands.
Trademarks enable shoppers to avoid as readily as to purchase goods.
If trademarks did not exist, consumers would probably invent them. Much of this, of course, derives from broadcast rights that may be enforced under copyright laws. Merchandising rights also figure prominently. Licensing others to use one's name or image is closely akin to trademark law. Once, purchasers of products bearing the names or logos of famous college or professional sports teams would not have assumed either a connection or any particular level of quality.