A trademark can be almost anything as long as it helps the consumer identify with the particular product or service. It can be a word, phrase, symbol, image, sound, device, or even color. Examples include such marks as the Nike “swoosh,” the NBC three-toned chime “G E C,” and the distinctive shape of a Coca-Cola bottle. This is FindLaw's collection of Trademark articles, part of the Intellectual Property section of the Corporate Counsel Center. Law articles in this archive are predominantly written by lawyers for a professional audience seeking business solutions to legal issues. Start your free research with FindLaw.
Trademark
Trademark Articles
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Changes to U.S. Trademark Law Under GATT
The GATT implementing legistation (GATT Act) contains two amendments to the U.S. Trademark Act, also known as the Lanham Act (15 U.S.C. Secs. 1051 1127). The first amendment relates to the abandonment of a mark. Under former law, if it could be ...
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Use It or Lose It: The Importance of Verifying Trademark Use
A recent trademark administrative decision highlights the importance for in-house counsel and trademark managers of verifying the use of a trademark when obtaining or maintaining a U.S. trademark registration. The penalty for overstating the use of ...
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Premature Assignment of Intent-to-Use Application Voids that Application and any Resulting Registration
Designed to prevent "trafficking" in trademarks, Section 10 of the Trademark Act, 15 U.S.C. §1060, prohibits the assignment of an intent-to-use trademark application before a party has filed an acceptable amendment to declare use or statement of use ...
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U.S. Supreme Court Decides Colors Alone May be Registered as a Trademark
The United States Supreme Court has held that a color can be registered as a trademark upon presentation of evidence showing that the color has become associated with a particular product and identified a particular source for that product. Circuit ...
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International Trademark Registration: The Madrid Protocol Takes Effect In The United States
On November 2, 2003, the United States became an active member of the Madrid Protocol system for international registration of trademarks. This is one of the most important changes to U.S. trademark law in recent years, providing a system for ...
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Protection of Literary Titles
When a book is published, the publisher expects the copyright law to protect its creative expression for the length of time provided for by the Copyright Act. But is the literary title that the publisher and author have spent substantial time ...
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The European Community Trademark Law
Pursuant to the treaty establishing the European Community, the counsel of the European Union issued a regulation establishing a European Community trade mark law. The Community trade mark law (CTM) does not replace the laws of the member states on ...
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Recognition of Well-Known Trademarks
The legal term of "well-known trademark" first appeared in the 1883 Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property ("Paris Convention"), which sets forth the principles for granting special protection to well-known trademarks. Paris ...
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Patent, Trademark, and Trade Secret
While copyright law is the most important intellectual property law for the Internet, you need to know enough about patent, trademark, and trade secret law to avoid infringing intellectual property rights owned by others and to be able to take ...
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Color Trademarks Revisited
In our April, 1994 Report, we discussed recent decisions by U.S. Courts of Appeal for the Eighth and Ninth Circuits (and two other, earlier cases) regarding the protectability and registrability of color alone as a trademark. One of those cases ...