UC Davis Law Review Hosts Highly Successful ‘Brand New World' Symposium
UC Davis hosted a major conference on the role of brands in our lives and in commerce on October 4 and 5. Funded generously by Google, the UC Davis Law Review symposium was titled "Brand New World: Distinguishing Oneself in the Global Flow." The symposium drew a large crowd of faculty, students, alumni, and legal and marketing professionals to the Kalmanovitz Appellate Courtroom over two days.
Two dozen of the world's top experts and scholars of trademarks and brands addressed the phenomenon of branding. Presenters hailed from top academic institutions including Cambridge, Oxford, NYU, Stanford, Princeton, Hong Kong, and the London School of Economics.
Panels at this interdisciplinary, international conference were framed around the following topics:
- "Tactics of Distinction in the Global Flow"
- "Feeling Good by Buying Good(s): From Dolphin-Safe to Do No Evil"
- "From Signatures to Trademarks: Seals, Stamps, Brands"
- "Function Creep: Hybrids at the Borders of Trademarks"
- "The Medium Is the Brand"
There were two keynote addresses: one by Rasmus Nielsen of the renowned Danish artists group Superflex, and one by Yale history of science professor Daniel J. Kevles. An NYU law professor attending the conference declared that it was one of the best conferences he had ever attended.
While Google was the primary sponsor, the conference was also supported by the School of Law, the Department of Social Sciences, and the Davis Humanities Institute. The Center for Science and Innovation Studies (CSIS) and the California International Law Center (CILC) jointly hosted the symposium with the UC Davis Law Review. The faculty sponsors of the conference were Professors Mario Biagioli, Madhavi Sunder, and Anupam Chander.
The conference was streamed live on the Internet and will be archived on the UC Davis Law School website. Papers from the conference will be published next year in the UC Davis Law Review, one of the most widely read and influential legal journals in the United States.