LTEC Lab Seminar Series–Exploring Brand Relationships: Trust, Truth, and Trademark Law

Authored by: Jasmine Sodhi, Windsor Law JD Candidate ’28 & LTEC Lab Research Assistant

Pictured (L-R): Alexandra Mogyoros, Michal Kasprowicz

On March 13, 2026, Windsor Law LTEC Lab, directed by Dr. Pascale Chapdelaine, hosted a seminar at exploring the evolving relationship between brands, trust, and trademark law. The event welcomed Dr. Alexandra Mogyoros, Assistant Professor at the Lincoln Alexander School of Law, with a commentary from Michal Kasprowicz, Partner at DLA Piper and Sessional Lecturer at Windsor Law.  

The seminar focused on trademarks and their evolving role in maintaining brand relationships through trust and loyalty. In today's world, one might assume that trademarks function primarily as signals to help consumers identify the source of a product and make purchasing decisions. However, Dr. Mogyoros illustrated that this is not how trademarks operate in the marketplace.

In her presentation, Dr. Mogyoros carefully examined the evolution of trademarks and their role in shaping brand images and consumer trust. Trademarks operate in tandem with brands. As she explained, brands are better understood as a reputational asset of value. Such value carries meaning beyond the product itself, because consumers increasingly rely on what a trademark represents, rather than simply using it to identify a product's source. She emphasized that in recent years, brands have been more outspoken and have functioned as political mediums, citing examples such as L’Oréal’s support of the Black Lives Matter movement, and No Name’s engagement with the war in Ukraine. In this way, brands have used their platforms to take positions on current political issues and signal alignment with particular values.

Since then, the function of brands has shifted away from overt political affiliations, in part to avoid narrowing their consumer base. Instead, brands increasingly engage consumers through interactive social media, creating channels where individuals can communicate with them, often through an automated system. This form of engagement fosters a sense that brands are responsive and attentive, allowing consumers to feel heard and validated. At the same time, rather than making explicit political statements, brands may signal their commitments more subtly. This is done through sustainability messaging, environmental responsibility, and broader value-based positioning, which continues to shape consumer trust without direct political alignment. 

Building on this shift, Dr. Mogyoros turned to examples of popular brand collaborations, including Barbie, to illustrate how consumers today relate to brands in ways that extend beyond the roles assigned to them within traditional legal frameworks. In discussing Barbie branded collaborations she pointed out that for certain brands, consumers are not concerned with identifying the precise source of a product but instead rely on what the brand represents. The Barbie name carries with it a set of recognizable associations which shape the expectations of a product’s style, quality, and overall experience, regardless of who produced it. In this way, the trademark law does not function strictly as an indicator of origin, but as a signal of meaning that consumers have come to understand and rely on. This reflects a broader shift in how brands operate, where perception and association play a central role in guiding consumer decision-making, and begin to inform the conditions under which consumers place their trust in a brand.

One theme that resonated throughout the entire seminar was that of trust. Dr. Mogyoros described it not as a general virtue, but as a specific, relational concept, which is that we trust brands to do certain things. She offered a clear framework for understanding this three-part relationship: A trusts B to do X, and might not trust B to do Y. Today, many brands are endorsed by companies, celebrities, important figures of authority such as healthcare providers. These endorsements cultivate trust in a brand's ability to perform a specific function. When choosing toothpaste, for example, do you select the brand recommended by nine out of ten dentists, or an unfamiliar store brand? This perspective sparked a powerful refection into consumer behaviour and why we choose certain brands over others for everyday needs.

Dr. Mogyoros highlighted how in our daily lives, we make decisions based on brand image, trust, loyalty and relational consumerism. We choose things we have been socialized into trusting through the images that brands and trademarks create for us. In turn, we rely on brands to deliver experiences and uphold a broad range of values in a fast-moving marketplace.

Adding to this discussion, Michal Kasprowicz offered a grounding perspective, peering into the realities of production and the legal frameworks surrounding brands and trademarks. He noted that trademarks have long functioned to mediate gaps between consumer knowledge and production, acting as proxies for information that could not be directly verified. At the same time, he encouraged critical reflection on these gaps, emphasizing that trademarks do not always fully convey where products come from or how they are produced. While the context has evolved, the gap between what trademarks signal and what consumers rely on remains.

This informative and engaging seminar opened the floor to a wide range of questions from the audience, of how brand collaborations influence loyalty to the role of ethics and activism in shaping consumer trust. Attendees brought their own experiences into the conversation, reflecting how brands are a part of their daily life in ways that are social, cultural, and at times, relational.

This seminar is a reminder of how complex and often surprising the relationship between brands and consumers can be and how limited the law’s conception of this relationship can be.

Windsor Law LTEC Lab offers a heartfelt thank you to our distinguished and knowledgeable speaker, Dr. Alexandra Mogyoros, and commentator Michal Kasprowicz, who shared their thoughts on transnational trademarks and branding. Thank you to our Director Dr. Pascale Chapdelaine for providing support throughout, as well as to our wonderful LTEC Lab RA's: Jasmine Sodhi, Ajeetha Vithiyananthan, Charlie Martin, Jessica Kabuli, Daina Elias, and Nikhita Nandeesha for their planning and commitment to this seminar’s success. Finally, we thank our attendees for contributing to such an engaging and thoughtful discussion.

Please feel free to view the event recording at your convenience here.