ABSTRACT
In 1996, Patek Philippe launched its now-iconic campaign declaring that ‘You never actually own a Patek Philippe. You merely look after it for the next generation’. Positioned against imagery of intergenerational transmission and the word ‘GENEVA’, the campaign framed the watch not merely as a luxury object, but as a vessel of tradition, quality, and national identity.
This Article argues that intellectual property (IP) law functions as a system of market regulation as well as a form of cultural governance that structures the diffusion of meaning in markets for symbolic goods. Using the Swiss watchmaking industry as a case study, it provides a doctrinal and empirical account of how trademark law, geographical indications, exhaustion, and related legal regimes shape the conditions under which authenticity is recognized, cultural value is stabilized, and reinterpretation becomes either permissible or suspect. In this Article, ‘cultural diffusion’ refers to the processes through which status-laden meanings attached to goods are interpreted, imitated, and reworked across social groups.
Drawing on forty-three interviews with industry executives, resale platforms, authentication providers, and policymakers across Europe, Asia, and the Americas, the Article shows how IP rights are strategically deployed to curate origin, stabilize authenticity, and structure cultural transmission over time. It argues that IP law should be calibrated not toward maximal control, but toward preserving the credibility of authenticity signals while maintaining a bounded space for non-deceptive reinterpretation. This dual function invites a reconsideration of IP’s normative foundations in markets where commercial value and cultural meaning are deeply intertwined.
Gösken, Christophe, Intellectual Property and the Diffusion of Culture: Evidence from the Luxury Watch Industry (April 9, 2026).
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