Trademark
Summary of Trademark
A device, symbol, or word used by a firm to distinguish its products from those of other manufacturers. The object of trademarks is to permit brand identification of products, which may permit a more ready market acceptance of current and new products. Trademarks are protected in the United States under the Lonham Trademark Act of 1946 and may be protected internationally under various agreements on the protection of industrial (intangible) property.
(Main Author: William J. Miller)
Legal Materials
Obtaining International Trademark Registrations
Commercial databases with foreign trademark registration records include ActiveIP, AvantiIQ, Coresearch, Trademark Explorer, SAEGIS and Westlaw. SAEGIS and Westlaw use Thomson Compumark’s powerful family of TRADEMARKSCAN databases.
In addition, many countries post free trademark databases. Canadian registrations are posted by the Canadian Intellectual Property Office, along with a considerable amount of useful information, including a sample registration form. A searchable database ofAustralian trademark records is available from IPAustralia. You can look for more using WIPO’s Alphabetical List of Intellectual Property Offices.
You can search for international trademark registrations through the Madrid Express Database. For information on the Madrid Agreement and the Madrid Protocol, see International Trademark Law – The Madrid System By Vicenç Feliú and the USPTO’s Madrid Protocol page.
International Trademark Legal Materials
For information on the trademark laws of individual foreign countries seeTrademarks Throughout the World (West), which is available as a multi-volume looseleaf or on Westlaw (TMWORLD). See also the Manual for the Handling of Applications for Patents, Designs and Trademarks Throughout the World, published by Wolters Kluwer (formerly by Property B.V.) and available online at KluwerManualIP.com (subscription). European Trademark Law: Community Trademark Law and Harmonized National Trademark Law (Aspen) covers both EU legislation and EU case law.
English versions of the trademark laws of most countries are published in Industrial Property Laws and Treaties of the World (WIPO). Trademark laws enacted after 2000 are posted in WIPO’s Collection of Laws for Electronic Access (CLEA) database.
You can find many of the leading IP-related treaties through the WIPO-Administered Treaties page.
The Canadian Trademark Act and the related regulations are posted on the Internet by the Canadian Intellectual Property Office.
Trademark Practice and Forms (Oxford University Press) explains how to register trademarks abroad, as does the extensive Manual for the Handling of Applications for Patents, Designs and Trademarks Throughout the World, published in The Netherlands by Manual Industrial Property B.V. and available in the U.S. from Aspen. You can also get information from the web site of the relevant country’s trademark registry agency, although the information may not be available in English.
The International Trademark Association provides Country Portals and other useful databases and publications, but most are available only to members.
United States Legal Materials
The section about trademarks in the American legal Encyclopedia covers the following topics:
U.S. Trademarks:
- Application Status
- Assignments
- Cease and Desist Letters
- Classes
- Obtaining U.S. Trademark Registration Records
- Obtaining U.S. File Wrappers
- Legal Research Materials
- State Trademarks
- Trademark Trial and Appeal Board
Special U.S. Trademark Searches:
- Preliminary and Comprehensive Searches
- Litigation Searches
- Watches
See Also
- Brand Names
- Copyrights
- Domain Names
- Patents
- Trademark History
- Trademark Registration Treaty
- Industrial Property
- Registered Trademark
- Intellectual Property History
- Intellectual Property Lawsuits
- Intellectual Property
- Madrid Agreement Concerning The International Registration Of Marks
- World Intellectual Property Organization
- Copyright Law
Trademark and International Trade Economy
In relation to international trade economy, Christopher Mark (1993) provided the following definition of Trademark: A name or symbol used by a manufacturer or merchant to distinguish goods from those made or sold by others. See intellectual property rights (Sec. I).
In the United States
For information about Trademark in the context of international trade, click here
Trademark and the Laws of International Trade
Trademark
Gray Market Goods
Trademark in Electronic Commerce
Trademark in the Online Business Law
Trademark (™) in International Trade
Meaning of Trademark ™, according to the Dictionary of International Trade (Global Negotiator): A distinctive identification of a manufacture product or of a service taking the form of a name, logo, motto, and so on; a trademarked brand has legal protection and only the owner can use the mark. Trademark protection varies from country to country, and may not be available in some jurisdictions. If trademark is available under the laws of a particular country, the trademark can be registered only if it distinguishable from others registered trademarks and it contains a name, brand, label, signal, devise, or any combination of these items. A country that is a member of the Paris Convention for the Protection of industrial Property may recognize trademarks held in other jurisdictions. In international markets trademarks rights are transmitted and sold through International Trademark License Agreements.
Resources
See Also
- Online Tax
- Internet Law
- Internet Marketing
- Internet Privacy
- Internet Sales
- Internet Tax
- Crossborder Commerce
- Keyword Advertising
Resources
See Also
Further Reading
- Information about Trademark in the Encyclopedia of World Trade: from Ancient Times to the Present (Cynthia Clark Northrup)
Hierarchical Display of Trademark
Production, Technology And Research > Research and intellectual property > Intellectual property > Industrial property
Trade > Consumption > Consumer > Consumer protection > Product quality
Trade > Consumption > Consumer > Consumer protection > Product quality > Product designation
Trade > Marketing > Marketing > Trade information
Trade > Marketing > Preparation for market > Labelling
Trademark
Concept of Trademark
See the dictionary definition of Trademark.
Characteristics of Trademark
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Resources
Translation of Trademark
- Spanish: Marca
- French: Marque
- German: Warenzeichen
- Italian: Marcatura
- Portuguese: Marca
- Polish: Znak towarowy
Thesaurus of Trademark
Production, Technology And Research > Research and intellectual property > Intellectual property > Industrial property > Trademark
Trade > Consumption > Consumer > Consumer protection > Product quality > Trademark
Trade > Consumption > Consumer > Consumer protection > Product quality > Product designation > Trademark
Trade > Marketing > Marketing > Trade information > Trademark
Trade > Marketing > Preparation for market > Labelling > Trademark
See also
- Manufacturer’s trademark
- Product brand
- Service mark
- Stamp of origin
- Trade mark
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