If we picture that a business is a person and the brand is its personality. We need to be sure that this personality is recognized and familiar to our customers. This means building strong brand awareness. This would help with customer’s purchase decisions, as they are more likely to choose a brand they are more familiar with over one they have never heard of. An important factor in raising brand awareness is the trademark.
What is a Trademark?
A trademark is a recognizable sign, phrase, or symbol registered in a business’s name.
Trademarks are used as identifiers that differentiate the goods and services of the business from those of other traders and provide legal protection. This protection refers to preventing others from using identical or similar marks or designs, including packaging, product shapes, color schemes, and other visual features.
Trademarks are a type of intellectual property (IP) and can be used as corporate logos, slogans, labels, business or product names, etc.
Intellectual property is a creation of the mind. It can be an invention (patent), a design (industrial design), a brand name (trademark), an artistic work (copyright) etc.
For example, the owner of a trademark is the Coca-Cola Company. The brand owns the trademark of the name Coca-Cola, as well as the shape of the bottle and the graphic representation such as logos and designs used on its packaging. This allows differentiation between Coca-Cola and other cola producers as well as strengthening their identity.
What are the Trademark symbols?
Trademark symbols are signs used to indicate that a particular word, phrase, or logo is a trademark or service mark. The three most commonly known symbols are:
- ™ for an unregistered trademark;
- SM for an unregistered service mark;
- ® for a registered trademark or service mark.
By registering a trademark, a business is granted certain legal rights and protections about that name. They become the only entity that can use the trademark. If another person or business tries to use it, the official owner has the right to take legal action against them. However not only the registered trademarks have protection rights. Unregistered trademarks recognized with the ™ symbol indicate that they are using common law to protect their interests.
What are the types of Trademark?
Trademarks can be categorized into several types depending on the purpose of the brand.
- Word Mark – This is a trademark that has one or more words or letters, for example, “Apple” and “Nike”.
- Slogan Marks – Slogan marks represent taglines and phrases to identify a brand or its products. For example, the Kit Kat’s “Have a Break, Have a Kit Kat,” and Nike’s “Just Do It.”
- Sound Mark – These are unique sounds that are associated with a brand. For example, Sony’s PlayStation gaming console startup sound.
- Motion Marks – Motion marks refer to moving images or animations. For example, the MGM lion roar.
- Service mark – A service mark is a brand name or logo that identifies the service provider and may consist of a word, phrase, symbol, design, or combination of these elements. For example, the “McDonald’s” logo.
- Design Marks – Design marks, also known as logo marks are visual symbols, images, and designs representing companies. For example, the “Starbucks” logo.
- Color Marks – Color marks are trademarks that protect specific color or color combinations used to identify a brand.
- Combination Marks – These trademarks include the combination of word marks and logo marks in order to create a single and common mark.
- Trade dress – A trade dress is the overall visual appearance of a product or packaging.
Conclusion
Trademarks are a type of intellectual property. They have two main purposes in business, taking part in identifying and protecting the products of the business.
First, trademarks serve as unique identifiers. And as such they differentiate the business’s goods and services from those of competitors in the marketplace. And second, trademarks provide legal protection. By preventing others from using identical or similar marks or designs, including packaging, product shapes, color schemes, and other visual features.
