Trademarks
Trademarks are symbols, pictures, marks, words or other characteristics that companies use to identify their products and services and distinguish them from others. We see trademarks everyday on the products we buy. Usually they have a TM or ® beside them. Trademarks cannot be generic terms. For example, if a company sells rice, they cannot simply call their product “Rice” because it doesn’t establish a difference between their product and the rice produced by other companies.
Trademark rights arise from the use and/or registration of the trademark. In British/American law, if a company commonly uses a trademark in the market, other companies are expected to refrain (stop themselves) from using that mark. A company can also register their trademark in a trademarks office/registry.
Trademark law gives the holders of a trademark the right to exclusive use of that mark. If another company uses that trademark, they have infringed on the trademark rights. There have been many famous cases of trademark infringement over the years, such as the ongoing battle between Lacoste and Crocodile International throughout Asia. A good example of a clear case of trademark infringement involved Starbucks and a competitor in China – see the China Law Blog for a description of the case. Trademark Law is an ever-growing area of IP Law – I even found a blog entirely about trademarks here.
Common collocations for “trademark”
trademark rights
trademark infringement
register a trademark
a registered trademark
trademark use
