In the trade marks field, the effect of excessively wide trade mark registrations which might in an extreme case make it impossible for others to enter a market. In competition (or antitrust) law, foreclosure of markets is one of the economic effects that the law tries to prevent, to ensure that new competitors can enter the market - for example, that Far Eastern car manufacturers can recruit a dealer network in the European Union, which would be foreclosed to them were all the existing dealers under exclusive contracts with other manufacturers. Trade mark law should prevent foreclosure, by requiring a degree of distinctiveness and allowing an unused trade mark to be removed from the register, or a bad faith application to be refused, but these provisions seem to be ineffective to preserve the available stock of trade marks in the face of the absolutism of many trade mark owners.
See also depletion.
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