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Written by : Hyman Loth |
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greetings I'm trademark attorney Josh curtain and today I want to talk about what is a trademark so let's start by talking about what a trademark is and I'll talk about what a trademark isn't because that's also a very common question so a trademark is normally a name a slogan or a logo that represents a brand of products or services naturally you're all aware of Nike Nike the name itself is a trademark the logo the swoosh is also a trademark and then the tagline just do it is a trademark itself so let's talk for a second about what is not a trademark trade mark is not a patent or copyright a patent would be if you had an invention a new technology of some sort that you wanted to protect and protect that actual invention from being copied by others a copyright protects a work of art so for example we're all normally very familiar with seeing the warnings when you open early when you start a DVD FBI warning this video is covered by copyright law copyright law prevents you from copying that DVD and then selling it another way copyright law works is it protects the entire contents of a book so if I were John Grisham and I was writing a novel that entire novel all the pros would be covered by copyright law so again just to recap a trademark is a brand it's the name of your product or service it could be the slogan or the logo associated with the product or service as well thank you very much if you have any further questions please feel free to give me a call
Thanks for your comment Simone Knap, have a nice day.
- Hyman Loth, Staff Member
people when they have a product get confused as to how trademark works a trademark is simply an identification of the source of goods or services it's not the product itself is the source of a product for example Tide laundry detergent tide is the maker of the laundry detergent it's not the actual detergent itself although often trademarks people come to identify them so closely with the product they may substitute the name of the trademark for the product but it's supposed to be a brand and represent the source you obtain trademark rights from actual use in commerce or by registering your trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office you can register your trademark what's called an intent to use or ITU trademark application before you have any sales when you've just thought of your idea for a name for example many times people register their trademarks in advance before they their product is fully developed or before they're ready to do sales in fact people will often check online on the intent to use trademarks because they are publicly available publicly available to see what other companies are doing in fact the Apple stores were known before app will announce them because they had several trademarks on file for intent to use for Apple Store and other names related to the store it's a good way to keep a track of what your competitors are doing the best trademarks that you can make or file for our arbitrary and don't have anything to do with the product itself for example Apple is associated with computers now but it an apple itself has nothing to do with computers kodak associated with film very strongly but kodak was a made-up word that the creator of the trademark felt had a strong name and strong sound and so used that as a trademark a trademark such as microsoft all the world-famous trademark is not the strongest trademark because there are a lot of companies that have micro blank or blank soft in their titles because it's not arbitrary it really is associated with product itself so if you are going to have a trademark for your company you can do it in advance and you should think of a name that is arbitrary and doesn't describe the product so closely
Thanks TerryTomin your participation is very much appreciated
- Hyman Loth
About the author
I've studied inorganic chemistry at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City and I am an expert in conspiracy theory. I usually feel jubilant. My previous job was recreation leader I held this position for 8 years, I love talking about wrestling and songwriting. Huge fan of J. Cole I practice softball and collect petroliana.
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