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What Is a Trademark?

In the United States, trademark protection is set forth in the Lanham Act, which defines a trademark as “any word, name, symbol, or device…used by a person…in commerce…to identify and distinguish his or her goods…and to indicate the source of the goods….”

Consumers encounter countless trademarks on a daily basis. The table below shows a small sample of the myriad of trademarks used to identify the sources of a large variety of goods and services.
Brand identification is the essence of trademark law. It provides consumers a reliable indicator as to the source of a product and allows companies and individuals to distinguish their goods or services from similar goods and services offered by others.

Some of the first trademarks were etched onto ancient pottery to identify the makers of particular clay pots so buyers who preferred pots made by a certain artisan or family could use such marks to identify the origin of the particular product. Today, the use of trademarks has exploded to all areas of commerce. General consumers use trademarks to identify the cars made by a particular company, services offered by certain retailers, and sources of thousands of other goods and services. Without trademarks, consumers would be forced to expend a considerable amount of time and effort to determine the quality or provenance of a particular good or service, causing their purchases to be much more difficult and risky. By making the brand more easily identifiable, trademarks create an incentive for business owners to offer products and services of higher quality because consumers will associate the quality of a product with its particular trademark.

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