Trade marks and responsible capitalism

This article reviews the claim that trade marks, as the signifiers of brands, increase the economic incentives that undertakings have to behave in accordance with the standards associated with corporate social responsibility ("CSR") and create pressure towards CSR. This claim is based on the economic case for CSR which views it as a set of standards that can help an undertaking to build or strengthen an attractive reputation and to improve its resilience and profitability. Trade marks can be used to link organisational behaviour to specific products on the market and enable consumers and other parties to give weight to organisational behaviour in their decision-making. This article argues that a trade mark's "economic guarantee" about product quality should extend to cover organisational behaviour, but recognises that there are limitations and shortcomings in the clarity and strength of this guarantee. Thus, some trade marks may mask economic links and organisational detail from consumers and make it harder to attribute organisational behaviour to the marked products. Also, the range and flexibility of the organisational arrangements which a trade mark's legal guarantee of trade origin can encompass may facilitate and even encourage behaviour That diverges from the standards of CSR. It is argued that these shortcomings make it even more important to ensure that trade marks do provide a reliable basis for linking organisational behaviour to marked products and to maximise the legal ability of trade mark owners to control behaviour that may be attributed to marked products. This would maximise the pressure that trade marks can generate in favour of CSR.