What Is A Trade Mark?

Trade Mark can be a symbol, writing or a distinctive picture or print to represent and distinguish a company or the good of a company from it competitors. Trade mark is often known as the brand.

It is the difference from other intellectual properties (otherwise known as ip’s)  and the rights such as copyright and design rights that give the purpose of identifying the product and its origin. These rights protect certain factors on a product.

Lets use an example of a t-shirt made by a clothing company.

The trade mark refers to the brand of the t-shirt e.g. Gucci

Copyright protects a design on the t-shirt.

Design right protects the appearance and shape of the t-shirt – especially if it was distinctive design from other t-shirts.

A patent covers the functions of the design, for example a new type of fastener or a new type of material used.

Trade marks usually consist of words, distinctive lettering, numbers, logos or drawings. It can be more than just one type of these.

Trade marks within a company are usually their brand name or a logo for the company, however depending on the product they can also consist of a texture, smell, packaging or a moving image.

The trademark represents the company, and shows customers and consumers what company they are getting their goods from.

A trade mark is registered and this protects the logo/writing/picture from being used by any other companies to represent their company.