Investigating Phonetic and Phonological Infringement in Pakistani Food Trademarks

Abstract The study investigates phonetic and phonological infringement patterns of food products in Pakistan. The study underpins the theory of Flood et al. (1991), who view linguistic analysis in the legal context as one of the aspects of the investigation. The study population is represented by the local markets in the city center of Peshawar, Pakistan. Due to time constraints, a total number of fifty shops in the local market of Peshawar are visited for the purpose of data collection by following simple random sampling. The data is collected by non-participant observations by taking photographs of food products with similar trademarks in the local markets. The study adopted the analytical framework of Butters (2008) forensic linguistic analysis, which centres on sound, sign, and meaning. The present study is delimited to the aspect of sound (i.e. phonetics and phonology). The findings reveal that phonetic and phonological patterns play a vital role in trademark infringement. The analysis of the data reveals that the likelihood of confusion, to some extent, is caused by phonetic and phonological infringement patterns. Furthermore, the study signifies that phonetic and phonological patterns may prove helpful in dealing with infringement issues in the context of Pakistan.