The term trademark refers to a recognizable insignia, phrase, word, or symbol that identifies a specific product, and legally differentiates it from all other products of its kind. In other words, It’s how customers recognize you in the marketplace and distinguish you from your competitors. Therefore, it also protects companies against counterfeiting and fraud, I mean, it prevents another person from offering a similar product or service confusingly similar to yours. However, this doesn’t mean you can stop others from using a similar logo for non-woodworking related goods or services. You don’t have rights to the word or phrase in general, only to how it’s used with your specific goods/services.
Trademarks can be a form of intellectual property and companies may, or may not, register them. They can be corporate logos, slogans, bands, or the brand name of a product. Consequently, they may be located on the package, label, voucher, or on the product itself. On the other hand, there is also a range of non-conventional trademarks which don’t fall into these standard categories. For example a color, smell, or sound (like jingles). Trademarks never expire, so the holder has the right to the trademark for the life of the product or service.
According to Forbes, we can find the trademarks of Google, Microsoft and IBM among the 10 most valuable trademarks.
Click and look at EC’s glossary to learn more entrepreneurial words.
« Back to Glossary Index