A New Institutional Economics Perspective on Trademarks: Rebuilding Post Conflict Zones in Sierra Leone and Croatia, 11 J. Marshall Rev. Intell. Prop. L. 745 (2012)

This paper evaluates the role of collective trademarks in enhancing the ability of tourism clusters to stimulate economic growth, local ownership and innovative governance. Illustrating how intellectual property (IP) law can be leveraged to achieve this, we offer a new economic rationale for trademarks in the context of tourism. Two post-conflict case studies of Sierra Leone and Croatia provide a crash test for this approach. By emphasizing the role of law, institutions and infrastructure in stimulating tourism in post-conflict zones, this paper echoes new institutional economics perspectives that highlight the impact of legal structure on development.

Despite widespread acknowledgement of the cluster attributes of tourism, the role of tourism and clustering in regional development policy is seldom addressed. To our knowledge, the role of collective trademarks in strengthening tourism clusters has not been investigated.