Trademark Basics

Whether you believe you know what a trademark is or not, you know. Trademarks are everywhere: at the grocery store, shopping mall, or simply walking down the street. Trademarks are words, logos, slogans, colors, and sounds that identify a product as belonging to a specific business. Think of the color brown for a delivery company, three chimes for a television network, or a black swish on athletic apparel – upon seeing or hearing these emblems consumers knows the product displaying it belongs to a specific company: United Parcel Service (UPS), National Broadcasting Company (NBC) or Nike, Inc.

Ages and ages ago, trademarks didn’t exist – every cobbler and baker had the same emblem hanging on shingles outside their shops. Eventually, certain shopkeepers developed reputations for quality products. When this began to happen, merchants began to distinguish themselves by producing emblems that stood out. By developing special emblems, consumers would not be confused and would know a certain merchant had product with certain qualities. Soon consumers associated this quality with the special emblems, and trademarks were born.

If you own a business, you understand the need for setting your product apart from similar ones in the marketplace. The idea of setting your product apart based on high quality is called good will. Think Coca Cola – consumers of this product expect a certain level of quality when they purchase the drink. If another soda merchant were allowed to use the infamous red and white combo and name, but the drink tasted significantly different that would impact the good will associated with the “real thing.”

Thus, trademarks were established as a means of protecting consumers from being confused by misleading emblems and merchants are then allowed to protect themselves from infringement by others selling similar merchandise. Building good will takes significant commitments of hard work and time. Hire a knowledgeable trademark attorney to work with you in the process of acquiring a trademark, be sure you design something unique and whimsical, and go from there.

©Michelle V. Evenson, 2016

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