How to Invent and Protect Your Invention: A Guide to Patents for Scientists and Engineers

4.4 TRADEMARKS AND SERVICEMARKS

The aim of trademark law is to promote economic competition and minimize consumer confusion about who created a product. Trademarks and servicemarks protect a word, phrase, symbol, or design that is used in commerce to identify or distinguish a product from others. Common examples of trademarks are business names like Exxon or Cisco, the Nike swoosh, and Adidas’ use of three stripes on athletic shoes. Most trademarks are used to protect names or logos, but even smells, colors, sounds, or types of packaging can be trademarked if they serve to identify a product and are distinctive. Trademark owners can prevent others from copying, reproducing, counterfeiting, or imitating their name or logo. They can also stop others from using similar names or logos that might confuse people or mislead the public as to who made a given product. For example, selling batteries under the label “Durasell” might infringe Duracell's trademark because consumers would be likely to grab Durasells off the shelf, thinking that they had been manufactured by a well-established battery brand. The potential consumer confusion would give Duracell grounds to prevent Durasell from using its similar name.

Trademarks exist indefinitely as long as they are being used in commerce, meaning that a business is selling products or services under the name or displaying the logo. The Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act even protects trademark owners from web users that try to cash in ...