by Traverse Legal, reviewed by Enrico Schaefer - February 26, 2013 - g. Trademark Infringement on the Internet
What is trademark infringement? As a trademark lawyer, I
hear the question all the time. Of course, we, as attorneys working at big law
firms, we tend to think that everyone understands legal jargon. But they don't.
Welcome to Trademark Law Radio, a top web resource on issues of trademark infringement, trademark licensing, trademark protection, and trademark registration.
What is trademark infringement? As a trademark lawyer, I
hear the question all the time. Of course, we, as attorneys working at big law
firms, we tend to think that everyone understands legal jargon. But they don't.
Today on Trademark Law Radio we're going to be talking about
the definition of trademark infringement, because before you can send a threat
letter or a notice letter claiming that someone else has infringed your
trademark, the first thing you need to understand is what is trademark
infringement.
So trademark infringement is a violation of your trademark
rights, and your trademark rights attach to your company name, your product
name, your service name, your brand, your logo, etc. as soon as you start doing
business under that brand. Under trademark law, we are in the United States a
first to use priority country, meaning that the person who is first to use a
trademark in a certain way in commerce and to establish the trademark in
commerce is going to be the person who's going to have priority rights over
anyone else who comes along and tries to then use the same or similar brand.
So before you can understand what is trademark infringement,
the first thing you have to do is understand what is a trademark, right? A trademark
is a very important intangible business asset, which is often protected by an intellectual
property lawyer, such as myself.
You want to think about it as one of several categories. It
could the name above your door, your company name. It could be a product name.
It can attach to a service. If you are a lawyer or a law firm, for instance,
you don't sell any products. You offer services to the business, and so you
could have a service mark, which most people still refer to as trademarks. As
long as you're doing business under a particular word or phrase, such as
Traverse Legal or Traverse Internet Law, then you have established potentially
those words as a trademark.
A trademark lawyer will tell you that if you are the first
to use those words or similar words in the market, that you sell your goods and
services in, then chances are you're going to have priority rights over
everyone else.
Now when someone infringes your trademark, what's happening
is they're using a mark which is the same or similar in a way which would cause
consumer confusion in the market and make people think, consumers think that
someone else was you. So think about trademarks as protecting around words and
phrases and around designs. The point here is that trademarks protect more than
just the literal spelling of a word. They protect against any use which might
be similar, which would be likely to cause consumer confusion. So just because I
change the spelling or add a letter or change the design of the logo doesn't
mean that I'm not going to be engaged in trademark infringement.
My name is trademark infringement attorney, Enrico Schaefer.
Today we've answered the question: What
is trademark infringement? We'll see you next time.
You have been listening to Trademark Law Radio. Whether you are facing a trademark infringement, licensing, monitoring or trademark registration issue, we have a trademark attorney ready to answer your questions.
As a founding partner of Traverse Legal, PLC, he has more than thirty years of experience as an attorney for both established companies and emerging start-ups. His extensive experience includes navigating technology law matters and complex litigation throughout the United States.
This page has been written, edited, and reviewed by a team of legal writers following our comprehensive editorial guidelines. This page was approved by attorney Enrico Schaefer, who has more than 20 years of legal experience as a practicing Business, IP, and Technology Law litigation attorney.
