Trademark: Legal Registration & Protection

Officially, a trademark, distinguished by ™ or ®, is a distinctive sign of some kind which is used by an organization to uniquely identify itself, its products and/or services to consumers, and to distinguish the organization and its products or services from those of other organizations.

Conventionally, a trademark comprises a name, word, phrase, logo, symbol, design, image, or a combination of these elements. There is also a range of non-conventional trademarks comprising marks (audio, motion, interactive) which do not fall into these standard categories.

Acquiring A trademark and its Benefits

U.S. law considers a trademark to be a form of property. Proprietary rights in relation to a trademark may be established in the U.S. in two ways:

• Actual use in the marketplace. By creating and using trademarkable material, it becomes your property, de facto. This DOES NOT mean that you don’t have to do your reseach! -Your name or logo may be in violation of someone else’s previously trademarked material. Before you commit to an officail trademark, do your research!

• Through registration of the mark with the trademarks office (or “trademarks registry”) of a particular jurisdiction – e.g. US Patent and Trademark Office.

In many jurisdictions, trademark rights can be established through either or both means. As the the global market place becomes bigger, and the internet allows for exposure – if not business – in other countires, it is often recccomended to officilay file for Trademark in all jurisdictions.

Not all countries have the same laws regarding tradmarks. Certain jurisdictions generally do not recognise trademarks rights arising simply through use of the name and/or logo in public (e.g. China). If trademark owners do not hold registrations for their marks in such jurisdictions, the extent to which they will be able to enforce their rights through trademark infringement proceedings will therefore be limited.

Trademark Offices & Resources

United States Patent and Trademark Office:

• Where to Start

• Trademark Electronic Search System

• Design Code Search Manual

• United States Patent and Trademark Office: FAQ’s (Costs. Processes, etc.)

• General Guidelines for Coding Design Marks

The American Trademark Company – Classification System:
• International Trademark Classification Guide

The process aquiring a trademark for a company name, and doing so within the appropriate category can be confusing and time consuming (Read: U.S. Trademark Law ) If a company can afford help, there are legal firms that can do the research and have the expierence and knowledge to do the leg work to get a proper trademark and legal protection.

Thomson CompuMark is a global trademark research firm, and maintains the world’s largest collection of international trademark information.

Website: Thomson CompuMark

In Class

Search for Trademarks: An early step step in planning and designing for a Corporate Identiy is to search the United States Patent and Trademark Office database. You need to determine whether anyone is already claiming trademark rights in a particular mark.You may conduct a search online for free via the TESS (Trademark Electronic Search System ) database. If your mark includes a design element, you will need to search it by using a design code. To locate the proper design code(s), please consult the Design Search Code Manual , then use that design code into TESS.

Class Reading: Part I: Perception. Pages 1-34