What Are Trademarks?

What Are Trademarks?

Trademark can be anything that can be used as a source to identify the product. It can be a symbol, name, color, smell or even more than one of the above mention things. When a person sees a trademark, he can say for sure which product that trademark signifies. For e.g. when people hear the name coca cola then they know that it is meant for a cold drink. Another such trademark is the swoosh symbol of Nike. Nike has registered its swoosh symbol with United States patent and trademark office (USPTO). This gives Nike the exclusive right of the swoosh symbol, no other shoe company can use that swoosh symbol. A company can in fact register more than one symbol, all one has to do is to fill up the application form and pay the required fees every year. 

Here is another example of a trade mark, Paris Hilton has actually filed a trademark application for the words “that’s hot”.  This trademark is still in the process of getting an approval from the USPTO. Even if this trademark is registered that does not imply that everyone else except Paris Hilton is prohibited from saying “that’s hot”. You can file a trade mark application only against a particular class of goods or services. If the trade mark gets registered then Paris Hilton will get exclusive rights to use the two words for only that particular goods or related goods against which the application has been filed. This clause holds true in all the types of trade marks whether words, or symbols or colors.  

You may be thinking why it is important to conduct a trademark search and why is it important to register your trade mark. Well to understand its significance let us look at a hypothetical situation. Assume that you are starting your own book store. You have both an e-book store and a physical book store. You come up with a great name for your business and keep that name for your company without running a trademark search. You invest a whole lot of money in the advertising and promotion of the company. All goes well. You are doing well, people know about your company. It is rated in the top ten names in the search engines list, and suddenly this rosy dreams shatters. You get a letter from another company stating that they legally own the trademark and you are no longer entitled to use the trademark.

Think of the consequence, by this time you would have probably invested a fortune in the advertising and promotion and suddenly the truth stands in front of you that you are actually liable for charges filed against you by the latter company. The lawful owner of the trademark can charge you for all the business that you have done under the “unlawful name.”

I guess the picture is pretty clear. It is important that you are sure that no one else has registered your prospective name of the company and it can be done easily through a trademark search.