2 The semiotic account of trademark doctrine and trademark culture

Semiotics is the study of signs and sign systems. While linguistics concerns itself specifically with human speech, semiotics investigates " the processes and effects of the production and reproduction, reception and circulation of meaning in all forms, used by all kinds of agent[s] of communication. " 1 Semiotic thought developed into its own distinctive field of inquiry in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries at a time strangely coincident with the development of modern trademark doctrine. 2 It was during this period that the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure projected a bold extension of his research in structural linguistics: " A science that studies the life of signs within society is conceivable. .. I shall call it semiology (from Greek semeîon 'sign'). Semiology would show what constitutes signs, what laws govern them. " 3 Since Saussure's time, semiotics (or semiology) has developed into a sophisticated systems-theoretical field of knowledge of enormous reach and ambition. The semiotic tradition forms the foundation of the past century's structuralist and poststructuralist thought across the humanities. 4 In this short chapter, I will seek to show how semiotic concepts can be applied to clarify and ameliorate fundamental areas of trademark doctrine and policy. Elsewhere I have set forth at length a semiotic analysis of trademark law. 5 My purpose here is not to reprise that account, nor is it simply to celebrate , as a matter of intellectual history, the parallel development of, and many