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Trademarks

Trademarks. Trademark. A commercial symbol, word, name or other device that identifies and distinguishes products of a particular firm Trademark law entitles the owner of the mark to prevent others, both competitors and those in other industries from using the trademark to market their products.

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Trademarks

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  1. Trademarks

  2. Trademark • A commercial symbol, word, name or other device that identifies and distinguishes products of a particular firm • Trademark law entitles the owner of the mark to prevent others, both competitors and those in other industries from using the trademark to market their products

  3. Goals of Trademark Law • The promotion of business ethics • The refinement of distributional efficiency • The development and maintenance of goodwill • The preservation of competition by expanding the public domain

  4. Trademark Subject Matter • Words, names, symbols • Slogans • Numbers, colors, smells, sounds • Characters and celebrities (Brittany Spears, Michael Jordan) • Trade Dress – the overall design of a product’s package or vendor’s premises

  5. Excluded Subject Matter • Generic words • Scandalous, or immoral marks • Deceptive marks • Deceptively misdescriptive

  6. Other Types of Marks • Service marks – registered in relation to a particular type of product line of related services • Certification marks – certify that all producers using the mark have the characteristics of the group operating under that certification mark • Collective marks – used by members of an organization to identify their members

  7. Spectrum of Distinctiveness • Arbitrary or fanciful – inherently distinctive, no connection between mark and product category • Suggestive – indirectly suggests features of goods, but a connection required using human imagination • Descriptive – describes major features of the type of product • Generic – one of the few terms necessary to adequately describe the type of product

  8. Acquisition of a Trademark • Use – trademark cannot be created until the owner makes actual use of the mark • Registration – not necessary under state common law, however, stronger rights are available under state or federal trademark registration

  9. Domain Names • Cybersquatting – the practice of acquiring domain names for the ransom and resale to the original owners of similar marks • Aticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA) passed in 1999

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