This is the second installment of a three-part series on intellectual property rights including copyright, trademarks, and patents.  Today, we address trademarks.

“A trademark is generally a word, phrase, symbol, or design, or a combination thereof, that identifies and distinguishes the source of the goods of one party from those of others.” Source: USPTO Basic Facts. Trademark rights develop through the use of the trademark in commerce and belong to the “company that applies the mark to its products.”  Lee Wilson, The Trademark Guide, at 14 (2018).  Thus, “registration enhances rights in trademarks but does not create them.”  Id. at 16. 

Trademark infringement occurs when one either intentionally or unintentionally imitates another’s trademark, causing consumers to mistakenly believe the imitation represents the “authentic” product. Id.  

To locate a trademark that no one else is using, various federal and state sites are available.  Two primary links for the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) are as follows:

Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS)

Trademark Electronic Application System (TEAS)

In addition, two examples of individual state trademark search sites are the following:

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Search and Registration of Trademarks in Massachusetts

State of Connecticut Trademark Inquiry

Nevertheless, as previously mentioned, a critical factor is initial use in the marketplace.  “[A] company acquires rights in a trademark roughly commensurate with the length of use, the geographic scope of use, and the variety of commercial uses it makes of the mark.”  Id. at 28. 

Fast Facts

Basic Facts About Trademarks published by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) provides fundamental information on the ins and outs of trademark. 

Blogs of Potential Interest

There are also blogs addressing the ins and outs of trademark, such as The IP Law Blog and TrademarkNow Blog.