Trademarks as Comics: What Can Sequential Art Teach Trademark Law?

What can trademark law learn from comic art? This comic book explores the question using Scott McCloud’s book Understanding Comics as a point of departure. McCloud provides a framework for understanding why some images are more effective icons than others. His analysis offers useful insights for trademark law. While comic artists need only follow their creative vision in balancing realism and abstraction, trademark holders are more constrained. If a mark is too abstract, it ceases to be distinct. But a mark that is too realistic loses the ability to embody the range of meanings that a trademark may represent. McCloud’s framework thus suggests a zone of effectiveness for non-word trademarks. When trademark holders select a mark that is outside the zone, trademark law should be suspicious of the choice.