Know About Trademarks

Posted by Copyright Law on July 15th, 2009 at 06:43am

Trademarks

A trademark or trade mark or mark is a distinctive sign or indicator of some kind which is used by an individual, business organization or rather legal entity to identify uniquely the source of its products or services from those of other entities. A trademark is a type of intellectual property. It is typically a name, word, phrase, logo, symbol, design, image or a combination of these elements. It is represented by the symbol TM

The owner of a registered trademark may commence legal proceeding for trademark infringement to prevent unauthorized use of that trademark. However registration is not required. The owner of a common law trademark may also suit but an unregistered mark may be protectable only within the geographical area within which it has been used or in geographical area into which it may be reasonably expected to expand.

        The term trademark also used informally to refer to any distinguishing attribute by which an individual is readily identified, such as the well known characteristics of celebrities.

 Terminology

Terms such as mark, brand and logo are sometimes used interchangeably with trademark. Trademark, however, includes any device, brand, label, name, signature, word, and letter, numerical, shape of goods, packaging, combination of colors or any combination thereof which is capable of distinguishing goods and services of one person from those of others. It must be capable of graphical representation and must be applied to goods or services for which it is registered. A specialized type of trademark includes certification marks, collective trade marks and defensive trademarks.

Establishing trademark rights

        The law considers a trademark to be a form of property. Property rights in relation to a trademark may be established through actual use in the market place or through registration of the mark with the trademark office of a particular jurisdiction.

A registered trademark confers a bundle of exclusive rights upon the registered owners. It includes the right to exclusive use of the mark in relation to products or services for which it is registered. The law allows the owner of registered trademark to prevent unauthorized use of the mark in relation to products or services which are identical or colorfully similar to the registered products or services.

Maintaining trademark rights

        Trademark rights must be maintained through actual lawful use of the trademark. These rights will cause if a mark is not actively used for a period of time. Normally 5 years in most countries. In the case of trademark registration, failure to actively use the mark in the lawful course of the trade may also expose the registration itself to become liable for an application from the removal from the register after a certain period of time on the ground of non-use.

Symbols

The two symbols associated with U.S. trademarks ™ (the trademark symbol) and ® (the registered trademark symbol) represent the status of a mark and accordingly its level of protection. While ™ can be used with any common law usage of a mark, ® may only be used by the owner of a mark following registration with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO or PTO) and designates such. The proper manner to display either symbol is immediately following the mark in superscript style.

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