The Intellectual Property Law has three branches: Patent Law, Copyright Law and Trademark Law. Patent Law will protect any new inventions from stealing and will give its inventor full rights on it. Movies, drawings, paintings, etc. are a part of artistic works and in this case copyright is used to protect them from imitations and illegal distribution. Although copyright law protects the artistic expression it hasn't got anything to do with idea of the work.
The trademark law is a little different; it protects any symbols, names or forms of signature that are found on a company's products. Trademarks can be names, drawings, sounds, images, or anything original about a certain company. However, services are distinguished by service marks which act as trademarks but are used for services.
The trademark system ensures that people are buying and identifying certain products. If people would be confused concerning trademarks they wouldn't be sure that the product they buy is original. The company's status and reputation is also assured through this system and keeps other company from copying a trademark or a product already on the market.
Trademark law also keeps a liberal competition between companies and ensures that all buyers are respected and have knowledge about the quality of the products.
Trademark law practically has an effect on creative artists as well (writers or authors, designers, etc). It endows creative artists and their business associates broad protections from any unlawful use of a trademark as long as it does not misled the public that the use was endorsed by the owner of the trademark. Trademark law and the art world connect through titles, trade dress, domain names, literary characters, and mishandling of the name of an author.
Titles are at times protected under unjust competition and trademark laws. It is not protected by the copyright law. Protection of a title is granted when it accomplishes a secondary meaning. Secondary meaning is similar to that of the titles commercial appeal. Titles must also be popularly known to meet the criteria. Usually, titles of series are great trademark contenders. Also, titles in one merchandise can be protected in another type of merchandise. Lastly, one-shot titles are not consequently allowed to trademark protection.
Trade dress is the visual image when speaking about trademark laws. It includes all the shapes, design and packaging that are being used for a certain type of product. This will make sure that clients will recognize it when searching for a product.
Current legislation applies the trademark law in other fields like the internet. Here, trademark law protects domain names used by certain companies, online publications, or any type of original information given to the public. The punishment is the same for people who make illegal use of electronic creations.
In connection with literature, sometimes a story or a novel's character is so appealing that it actually takes a life of its own outside its original medium. Consequently literary characters may become linked with a certain product. With this occurrence, the literary character can be sheltered by unfair competition and trademark laws, even though it may not protected by copyright anymore.
If a person has trademark rights they are allowed to sue anybody who will violate those rights. If someone modifies their work and claims to be original, or sells their work without approval, they will be punished for illegal intellectual property use. The importance of trademark is not only economical, but it also helps culture and ensures that people are aware of the products they buy.
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Your Trademark Law explains everything you need to know about trademarks, copyrights, and patents. It is your personal reference to protecting your business.
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