Reinterpretation of the Average Consumer Benchmark considering Recent Developments

In trademark law, the “average consumer” is a benchmark that represents the target audience of a product or service and is considered in cases of trademark registration or infringement. This criterion plays a decisive role in assessing consumer behaviour and perceptions and deciding on the registrab...

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Main Author: Gül Büyükkılıç
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Istanbul University Press 2024-12-01
Series:İstanbul Hukuk Mecmuası
Subjects:
Online Access:https://cdn.istanbul.edu.tr/file/JTA6CLJ8T5/77EA5E4274314685B30E9C74F9F5FA68
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author Gül Büyükkılıç
author_facet Gül Büyükkılıç
author_sort Gül Büyükkılıç
collection DOAJ
description In trademark law, the “average consumer” is a benchmark that represents the target audience of a product or service and is considered in cases of trademark registration or infringement. This criterion plays a decisive role in assessing consumer behaviour and perceptions and deciding on the registrability or infringement of a particular trademark. Although the average consumer has been formulated as “a person who is reasonably well-informed and reasonably observant and circumspect” by the doctrine and judicial decisions, it is an undeniable fact that the formulation of the average consumer is far from providing the necessary flexibility to the judiciary in the evaluation of the concrete case, especially today, when electronic commerce is gaining importance, market conditions are changing day by day, and the perception of the consumer has taken a different shape from the traditional understanding. An interdisciplinary approach to the average consumer criterion and the inclusion of survey evidence and public opinion survey evidence regarding actual use and likelihood of confusion within the scope of the global assessment of likelihood of confusion would be beneficial in terms of resolving concrete disputes on a more objective basis.
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spelling doaj-art-39afa8e277bf445c870cbaf1bece74dc2025-08-20T02:57:39ZengIstanbul University Pressİstanbul Hukuk Mecmuası2667-69742024-12-018241101113310.26650/mecmua.2024.82.4.0006123456Reinterpretation of the Average Consumer Benchmark considering Recent DevelopmentsGül Büyükkılıç0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3484-7002Marmara Üniversitesi, İstanbul, TürkiyeIn trademark law, the “average consumer” is a benchmark that represents the target audience of a product or service and is considered in cases of trademark registration or infringement. This criterion plays a decisive role in assessing consumer behaviour and perceptions and deciding on the registrability or infringement of a particular trademark. Although the average consumer has been formulated as “a person who is reasonably well-informed and reasonably observant and circumspect” by the doctrine and judicial decisions, it is an undeniable fact that the formulation of the average consumer is far from providing the necessary flexibility to the judiciary in the evaluation of the concrete case, especially today, when electronic commerce is gaining importance, market conditions are changing day by day, and the perception of the consumer has taken a different shape from the traditional understanding. An interdisciplinary approach to the average consumer criterion and the inclusion of survey evidence and public opinion survey evidence regarding actual use and likelihood of confusion within the scope of the global assessment of likelihood of confusion would be beneficial in terms of resolving concrete disputes on a more objective basis.https://cdn.istanbul.edu.tr/file/JTA6CLJ8T5/77EA5E4274314685B30E9C74F9F5FA68average consumerrelevant publicrepresentative consumertargeted consumerreasonably well-informed consumerwell-informed consumerspecialised consumerand consumer perception
spellingShingle Gül Büyükkılıç
Reinterpretation of the Average Consumer Benchmark considering Recent Developments
İstanbul Hukuk Mecmuası
average consumer
relevant public
representative consumer
targeted consumer
reasonably well-informed consumer
well-informed consumer
specialised consumer
and consumer perception
title Reinterpretation of the Average Consumer Benchmark considering Recent Developments
title_full Reinterpretation of the Average Consumer Benchmark considering Recent Developments
title_fullStr Reinterpretation of the Average Consumer Benchmark considering Recent Developments
title_full_unstemmed Reinterpretation of the Average Consumer Benchmark considering Recent Developments
title_short Reinterpretation of the Average Consumer Benchmark considering Recent Developments
title_sort reinterpretation of the average consumer benchmark considering recent developments
topic average consumer
relevant public
representative consumer
targeted consumer
reasonably well-informed consumer
well-informed consumer
specialised consumer
and consumer perception
url https://cdn.istanbul.edu.tr/file/JTA6CLJ8T5/77EA5E4274314685B30E9C74F9F5FA68
work_keys_str_mv AT gulbuyukkılıc reinterpretationoftheaverageconsumerbenchmarkconsideringrecentdevelopments