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A trademark is a type of intellectual property right that safeguards a person’s or a corporate entity’s ownership over their brand names and symbols. Trademarks can become legally enforceable only when they are properly registered with the appropriate authority. This registration not only certifies legal recognition of the use of a trademark but also serves as a notice of the trademark’s existence to others so that they are deterred from using it for their own interests.

Once you have thought about a brand name, you must not delay in registering it. Any slackness in applying for the same might result in another company taking that name before you, in which case you will lose the opportunity to get that trademark registered.

Firstly, you need to undertake a basic check on the current names to verify if the name you want to use is available. You should conduct an elaborate search for resembling trademarks duly registered by other companies to ascertain any chance of duplication. The database maintained by the registration office can help you figure this out.

Then you have to collect the application form and fill in the mandatory information including the name of company, office address, nature of products or services provided and other such details. The filled up form accompanied by the registration fee is then submitted to the relevant authority. However, if you fail to carry out the basic trademark availability check in advance, the concerned authorities will have the right to forfeit your fee of application after cancelling your claim.

Once you have submitted your application, you should be careful as to sensibly respond to the queries asked by the authorities. Any such questions must be answered within the specified time. Once your application has been accepted, you will obtain a certificate from the authorities that will give you the lawful ownership over the trademark in addition to the authority to take action against violation of the same.

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When we talk about property, it is not only the tangible things such as homes, structures, land, money etc that are protected by law. Other types of property which are non- material in form also exist. They are termed intellectual property and these are also protected by the law. The three primary kinds of intellectual property rights are patents, trademarks and copyrights.

Copyrights are intellectual property dealing with rights of an author or an artist over his or her original creation. It includes not only original writing pieces but also other types of creative expression like music, videos, films etc. Under copyright law, the creator of the work gets a number of privileges which include financial rights to income generated from the work and acceptance as sole owner of that work.

In contrast, trademarks accord the person who has registered it, the safety over certain graphical representations, words or marks which point to the creator or source of products to prevent replication and thus infringement. With this legal shield, trademark is protected from duplication by unscrupulous persons who wish to exploit reputed brands.

The third kind of intellectual property right, termed as patent, safeguards the rights of inventors in their innovative and useful invention. It gives them exclusive privilege of use and sale of their invention for a particular period.

There are some more intellectual property rights too which are less often enforced and used. Some examples of other types are traditional understanding cultivated by inhabitants of a particular area that is distinctive only to that area; trade secrets that include business secrets, for instance, KFC’s recipe; and positional pointers that are a variant of trademarks used for merchandise originating from a particular part of the world, for instance Champagne.

While all the three types of intellectual property mentioned above are different from each other there are also some similarities. All three are fully protected by the law and the rightful owner can take legal action to establish his right and claim compensation for any misuse.

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The term trademark stands for certain symbols or texts that distinguish the products of one company from the other. The prime function of trademarks is to prevent any confusion in the consumers’ minds about the source of a product that they intend to purchase.

One of the critical needs for a trademark is that it should be distinctly recognizable and not be similar to other marks existing in the market. The uniqueness of a trademark can be determined by placing it in one of the trademark groups – suggestive, descriptive, fanciful, and generic.

A descriptive mark uses a specific characteristic or aspect of a product to differentiate it from other commodities of its kind. However, marks that are descriptive are not as distinctive as some other marks and thus, they are not generally eligible to be trademarked. Although, if the mark has acquired a secondary identification that is more popular among the consumers, it can be successfully trademarked.

Suggestive marks, as is evident by the name, suggest an essential feature of the product. However, it is usually the case that the mark and the product do not show any obvious relation and the consumers might have to guess the link between the two. For instance, the brand name known as ‘Hush Puppies’ points to a comfortable range of footwear that makes sure that your feet do not become sore. The prime reason behind such a name is that ‘barking dogs’ is used as a slang for sore feet in some places in America.

Arbitrary marks are those marks which do not have any link whatsoever with the product itself. For example, the usage of the mark ‘Apple’ for computers is totally disconnected from the product. Similarly, there is no link between the fanciful name Exxon and the items sold under the trademark as it is a fruit of the creative mind of the marketing agents of the firm.

Finally, generic marks are ones which represent a general category of products like ‘olive oil’ and are granted no protection under the existing trademark laws.

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