Trademark

A sign that identifies the commercial source of goods or services and distinguishes them from competitors. It can include words, logos, shapes, sounds, or other recognizable features.

Distinctiveness (trademark law): The capacity of a sign to identify commercial source rather than merely describe goods or services. Distinctiveness determines whether a sign can function as a trademark and how strongly it is protected.
Intellectual property: Legal rights over creations of the mind, including inventions, artistic works, designs, and commercial identifiers. Trademark is one branch of intellectual property, distinct from rights in inventions and creative works.
Brand: A set of associations and identifiers through which people recognize and distinguish a business or its offerings. Trademarks provide legally protected identifiers within the broader concept of a brand.
Certification mark: A mark indicating that goods or services meet standards set by an authorized certifying organization. Unlike an ordinary trademark, it certifies qualities or origin rather than identifying one seller’s goods.
Passing off: A common-law action against misrepresentation that causes damage by making one business appear connected to another. It can protect commercial goodwill where trademark registration is absent or unavailable.
Trademark registration: The administrative process of recording a trademark with an intellectual property office for specified goods or services. Registration can establish enforceable rights and public notice, subject to each jurisdiction’s rules.
Good and services classification: The international system grouping goods and services into classes for trademark registration. Trademark applications identify the markets in which protection is sought using these classes.
Trademark licensing: Permission for another party to use a trademark under agreed conditions. Licensing lets owners expand use while maintaining control over the mark and associated goods or services.
Service mark: A mark identifying the source of services rather than physical goods. It applies trademark principles to services, such as banking or transportation.
Trademark exhaustion: The principle that control over resale of a marked product may end after its authorized first sale. Exhaustion limits how far trademark owners can control genuine goods after placing them on the market.

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