Trade mark law and cognitive psychology are both concerned with establishing the mental states of consumers: in theory then we might expect these disciplines to have a close relationship, and to be engaged in ongoing dialogue. This is not the case and on further examination, real difficulties emerge, especially arising from trade mark law’s registration system. It is not simple to reconcile the goals, and the philosophical foundations, of these two disciplines. This article makes the argument that insights from psychology can play an important role in trade mark law, but for that to happen, we need to move away from the idea that insights from psychology are only useful to decide particular disputes before the courts. A better approach is to test trade mark law at a higher level of abstraction: to test trade mark law s assumptions about how consumers process information. Starting at this level could inform trade mark law, without disrupting the registration system.

中文翻译：

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走向商标法与心理学的新关系

商标法和认知心理学都与建立消费者的心理状态有关：从理论上讲，我们可能期望这些学科具有密切的关系，并参与持续的对话。事实并非如此，经过进一步审查，会出现真正的困难，尤其是商标法的注册制度。调和这两个学科的目标和哲学基础并不容易。本文提出了心理学见解可以在商标法中发挥重要作用的论点，但要实现这一点，我们需要摆脱心理学见解仅对在法庭上裁决特定争议有用的观点。更好的方法是在更高的抽象层次上测试商标法：测试商标法关于消费者如何处理信息的假设。从这个级别开始可以为商标法提供信息，而不会破坏注册系统。