Introduction: I receive a lot of questions pertaining to trademarks. There are several facets to the topic. First is the scope of protection. Second is what is a permissible trademark and third is what is the process of applying for federal registration of a trademark. Discussion: The scope of protection is vague. A trademark identifies…
weak mark
WHAT IS A TRADEMARK?
Introduction What is a trademark? Basically, a trademark is exactly what it says it is; a “mark” used in “trade” to distinguish the goods of the trademark owner from the goods of others. For services, the term is (not surprisingly) “service mark”. A mark may be a symbol, design or word. Frequently a mark is…
GEOGRAPHIC NAME TRADEMARKS
Introduction If you have read my article “Introduction to Trademarks” you will know that I encourage use of arbitrary or coined words as trademarks. They provide the strongest protection. I am always leery of geographical place names in trademarks. At best they provide weak protection. Also it may not be possible to register the marks on the USPTO Principal…