Trademark is super mark in the business field!
Trademarks comprise the most familiar of intellectual property law.
On a daily basis, every sees, uses, and makes many decisions on the basis of trademarks.
For instance, you probably decide to purchase your phone, your bag, much of the packaged food in you residence, your magazines, your pc, and your watch on the basis of their trademarks.
I believe that trademarks originated in 16th century extent.
A trademark is a brand.
Naturally, disputable competitors seeking to capitalize on a well-known reputation, soon came along and counterfeited the “trademark” on copycat.
Judge were called upon in 16th century to punish and stop the counterfeiters, then trademark law was born.
In its most literal meaning, a trademark is any word or other symbol that is consistently attached to, or forms part of, a product or its package to identify and distinguish it from other in the marketplace.
In other words, a trademark is a brand.
Designs, logos, sounds, smells, and even colors = Trademark
An example of a word trademark is Apple, a brand of phone, tablet, and pc.
In addition to words, trademark can be designs or logos, sounds, smells, and even colors.
For example, the PTO granted a trademark registration on a convenience store, Seven Eleven.
The shape of an object can even be a trademark, provides the shape does not provide a superior function, and the shape has become associated in the minds of purchasing public with the manufacture.
Patent vs. Trademark
Many patented goods or processes also are covered by trademarks.
For example, photocopiers from the Xerox have many patents on their internal parts, and sold under their well-known trademark.
Without the patents, people could copy the internal parts, but Xerox would still have a monopoly on its valuable and widely recognized trademark.
How many types inTrademark?
The term “Trademark” is also commonly used to mean “Service Mark”.
There are marks that are associated with services offered in the marketplace.
Examples of service marks include the letters China Telecom (network services), Thai Pacific Prime (Insurance service), and Starbucks (Cafe).
Two other types of trademarks are “Certification Marks”, the identifying symbols or names used by independent group, board, or commission that certify the quality of goods or services.
An important third category of business identifier that is often confused with trademark is called a “trade name”.
In the law, trade name is the word or other symbol under which a company does business.
Trademark as legal offensive rights
Briefly, the owner of a trademark may or may not be entitled to legal offensive right depending on how distinctive the law considers the trademark.
Trademarks are strong in business field and entitled to a relatively broad scope of offensive rights.
On the other hand, marks that describe some function or characteristic of the product are usually considered weaker.
Those marks become “diluting mark” easily and lost its discrimination power quicker.
However, the owner of a famous mark can prevent from diluting the mark, even if the diluting mark is not used on similar goods or services.