In this episode, Jake Linford, Associate Professor of Law at Florida State University College of Law, discusses his scholarship on how linguistic theory can inform our understanding of trademark doctrine, especially the so-called "hierarchy of marks." Among other things, he touches on his papers "Are Trademarks Ever Fanciful?", "The False Dichotomy Between Suggestive and Descriptive Trademarks", and "A Linguistic Justification for 'Generic' Trademarks." This episode is co-hosted by Guy A. Rub, Professor of Law at the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law.

Keywords: trademarks, source significance, secondary meaning, distinctiveness, inherent distinctiveness, linguistics, suggestive, descriptive, Abercrombie, semantics, cognitive research, etymology, semantic shift, semantic change, semantic drift

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