87R22785 CJM-D
By: Geren H.R. No. 1962
R E S O L U T I O N
WHEREAS, July 5, 2021, is the 75th anniversary of the signing
of the Lanham Act by President Harry S. Truman, marking a
significant milestone in the effort to protect American consumers
and manufacturers from the proliferation of counterfeit goods; and
WHEREAS, Counterfeit products undermine laws, threaten the
economy, and pose both potential and actual harm to consumers in
Texas and across the nation; in April 2021, the Organization for
Economic Cooperation and Development reported that counterfeit
goods were on the rise, constituting as much as 3.3 percent of
globally traded goods at a cost of $500 billion; there are
approximately 180,000 registered trademarks owned by Texas
businesses and more than 2.5 million active trademarks in the
United States, and each year, brand owners ranging from small
businesses to major corporations collectively spend billions of
dollars to remove counterfeit products from circulation; and
WHEREAS, Also known as the Trademark Act of 1946, the Lanham
Act provides the foundation for modern federal trademark
protection, creating remedies for brand owners and helping
consumers by reducing the number of counterfeit and confusingly
similar products in the marketplace; cited in over 50 Supreme Court
decisions and 54,000 cases in state and federal courts, the act has
helped establish a nationwide framework for the protection of
logos, words, phrases, names, packaging, scents, shapes, colors,
and other elements of trademark; these measures help protect the
integrity of consumer goods ranging from soap and toothpaste to
pharmaceuticals and military equipment; and
WHEREAS, The primary sponsor of the act was Fritz Lanham of
Fort Worth, who represented the 12th Congressional District in the
U.S. House of Representatives from 1919 to 1947; during his
remarkable 27-year tenure, he served as chair of the House
Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds, playing a vital role in
the construction of such important federal buildings as the Pan
American Union Building, the Longworth House Office Building, and
many U.S. courthouses and post offices; he also served on the
Supreme Court Building Commission under former president and chief
justice William Howard Taft, helping to oversee the construction of
the U.S. Supreme Court building, on time and under budget; and
WHEREAS, For 75 years, the Lanham Act has enabled the
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to administer a strong and
effective federal trademark system, and in so doing, this important
legislation has helped protect both brand owners and consumers in
the marketplace; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the 87th Texas
Legislature hereby commemorate the 75th anniversary of the passage
of the Lanham Act and pay tribute to the life and legacy of
U.S. Representative Fritz Lanham.