Trademark law is one of the three branches of Intellectual Property Law. The other branches are Patent Law and Copyright Law.
As an overview, patent law guards new inventions that can be valuable by giving the owner or patentee the right to keep out other individuals from using the said invention in their enterprises. Copyright law, on the other hand, protects the rights of artists for their creation of their works, be it a book, film, or an artwork from any unauthorized imitation of the said work. Copyright law, however, has nothing to do with the idea of the creation or work; it merely protects its expression.
Meanwhile, trademark law protects marks or names that are in connection with the merchandise or product. A trademark can be a word, color, sound, icon, image, phrase, or way of packaging that is acquired and utilized by an organization or corporation for easy recognition of their merchandise and services that will set them apart from other corporations or organizations. Services and not product merchandise, however, are identified by a service mark (which is similar to that of a trademark).
From a historical point of view, trademark law was pioneered by the Englishmen during the 13th century to guard the customers from spurious merchandise. In the late 19th century, the governments of Britain and the United States of America established Trademark agencies that controlled the registration of trademarks.
Basically, trademark law thwarts illegal use of a product-identifying mark or sign and guarantees consumers that the product they are purchasing are made by the same producer and are not poorly manufactured counterfeit products. The law at the same time also promises the producer or manufacturer that imitators will not reap the financial rewards. It also protects the reputation of the real manufacturer.
Trademark fundamentally protects consumers from being duped. It guarantees liberal competition by defending the benevolence of the person or company who possesses the mark. It essentially concerns itself with the buffet of services and commodities.
Trademark law practically has an effect on creative artists as well (writers or authors, designers, etc). It endows creative artists and their business associates broad protections from any unlawful use of a trademark as long as it does not misled the public that the use was endorsed by the owner of the trademark.
Trademark law and the art world connect through titles, trade dress, domain names, literary characters, and mishandling of the name of an author.
Titles are at times protected under unjust competition and trademark laws. It is not protected by the copyright law. Protection of a title is granted when it accomplishes a secondary meaning. Secondary meaning is similar to that of the titles commercial appeal. Titles must also be popularly known to meet the criteria. Usually, titles of series are great trademark contenders. Also, titles in one merchandise can be protected in another type of merchandise. Lastly, one-shot titles are not consequently allowed to trademark protection.
Trade dress, in trademark law, is merchandise's recognizable image. It is actually the merchandise's characteristic color, shape, image, packaging, or a combination of these factors that the consumers will easily connect with a certain source.
Domain names are web addresses consigned to certain computers on the internet. These names are extensively utilized by companies in connection with entertainment, information, and publishing. Any use of the domain name without permission is a violation of the trademark right of the owner. Fortunately, current legislations have made battling unlawful trademark users.
In connection with literature, sometimes a story or a novel's character is so appealing that it actually takes a life of its own outside its original medium. Consequently literary characters may become linked with a certain product. With this occurrence, the literary character can be sheltered by unfair competition and trademark laws, even though it may not protected by copyright anymore.
Trademark law also has sanctions over the mishandling of an author's name. According to unfair competition laws any author can take legal action against bogus source designation or false advertising if their role to a certain literary piece or work is imprecisely depicted. Another violation of the right of an author is an illegal unauthorized modification of their work.
In a nutshell, the trademark law is concerned about corporate integrity and educated purchasing decisions. It promotes the progress of the society's economy.
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Intellectual property is a name used to point out an assortment of legal privileges to a buffet of ideas, information or other works in an expressed concrete structure. The proprietor of this legal privilege is licensed to implement the exclusive rights on his/her property within the intellectual property law's prerogatives.
By definition, intellectual property refers to the issue that what the human mind has invented or produced can be considered as a property and can be protected by the law. It signifies the precise description of legal rights endowed upon inventors, authors, and other certain property owners.
Trademark is considered as an intellectual property alongside with copyrights; patents, industrial design right, and trade secrets.
As an overview, patents are granted to new and practical inventions and allow the patentee the right to solely exploit the commercial potential of the invention for a certain amount of time. The purpose of industrial design right is to guard the structure of design or style of an object such as furniture or spare parts. While the realm of responsibility of copyrights are creative works; and it provides the holders the privilege to be in command of the work's adaptations or reproductions for an agreed upon period of time. Lastly, trade secrets are non-public information related to proprietary enterprise information and that its public revelation is deemed unlawful.
To return to the main subject, a trademark is any sign that allows identification of the commodities and services that are produced by a company or an individual. A trademark can be a single or a collection of words, designs, icons, letters, numbers, or symbols. It is practically the façade of a company that promotes their commercial marketability power to the public. But it can be also used to merely identify a non-corporate organization or club.
Other than its purpose of distinguishing a product or a service, it also endows exclusive rights and protection to the asset or property claimed by the owner. Although the time span of exclusive protection for the said mercantile properties may vary, trademark registration can be extended for an indefinite period of time as long as the owner can pay the additional fees. Protection of commercial properties by trademark laws is implemented by magistrates. These magistrates have the power to obstruct trademark infringement.
Trademark's primary purpose is to pointedly name the origin or source of the commodities. It is basically a sort of symbol of origin or another way of marking a property. This type of utilization of trademark is called trademark use. The owner of the trademark insists on the rights through the blockage of illegal usage by competitors.
Rights to the trademark take place after completing registration of the mark associated with a certain variety or single type of goods and services. But it may be necessary to instigate legal proceedings to thwart of illegal use of the mark outside the jurisdiction of the law. But trademark law does not eliminate the use of the mark or symbol by the hoi polloi or public.
When one looks at it clearly, trademark supports global commerce through financial returns and commercial exposure of the marketable properties. Protection of trademarks also includes the obstruction of unreasonable rivals and the prevention of imitators to utilize the same distinguished signs to sell their own products, services, or properties. This scheme practically facilitates fair production and enterprise of mercantile goods, services, and properties encouraging the advancement of global trade.
But this organization of commercial trade has its critics, too. There are others that view the grand system of intellectual property as intellectual protectionism. There are arguments as to whether the laws concerning intellectual properties function for the benefit of the global citizenry. It is also deliberated if the protection the laws provide is suitable within the context of originality developed from facts derived from tradition, folklore, legends, or myth as well as patents intended for business techniques.
The provision of international property laws of rights can be deemed innately off-putting. It consequently endows the international property holder the right to keep out competitors from violating their control and regulation of the products and services.
Last but not least, the intellectual property laws' endowment of exclusive rights and/or privileges can be reassigned or loaned to third parties with or without due consideration. Just like other types of property, intellectual property, in this case, trademark property, can also be loaned or mortgaged to other people. It can be even utilized as a security for a loan, too!
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