미국 상표법에서의 신용이론의 역사적 발전과정과 상표보호의 확장

Trademark law in South Korea aims to protect the two legal interests: the goodwill of the trademark user and the benefit of the consumer. Therefore, protecting the goodwill of a trademark chosen by a trademark user conforms to the purpose of the trademark law in Korea. Historically, the U.S. Court had adopted a legal principle that trademark law protects the mark itself with property rights, but changed a legal principle that trademark law protects the goodwill with property rights. As a result, the changed principle has become a legal basis for recognizing the expansion of trademark protection, breaking away from limited trademark protection based on traditional confusion theory. In other words, that principle was used as legal tools to recognize trademark infringement of non-competing goods. As a result, this goodwill theory became the legal basis for the U.S. Court to adopt the principles of expanding trademark infringement: dilution theory, post-sale confusion theory, initial interest confusion theory. However, it is not desirable to extend the scope of protection of trademarks excessively based on the goodwill theory. This is because trademark law requires the balanced protection of the two legal interests. In other words, trademark infringement under trademark law should be made on the basis of the protection of goodwill enjoyed by the trademark holder through his property rights and the protection of consumers' interests in preventing source confusion. Consequently, the purpose of the trademark law of the interest of consumers should not be disregarded by the expansion of trademark protection based on the goodwill theory.