Is Trademark an Art?

 

Before answering whether Trademark is an art? It is better to understand what actually is Trademark and why it is used? A trademark can be a word, symbol, sign, design, slogan, logo, expression or a combination of any, which is used to identify and distinguish a specific good or service of a particular brand from others. Although trademarks are used to recognize and differentiate services, they are usually called service marks. Furthermore, the trademark or service mark is represented by symbol ‘TM’ and ‘SM’, where ‘TM’ stands for Trademark and ‘SM’ refers to Service marks. In addition to this, the trademark can be used by an individual owner, a professional organization or a legal entity. The trademark is generally visible on the package or near the label and product name. In short, a trademark refers to any brand, logo, distinctive phrase, taglines or even captions which help the firm or brand to stand out from others and protect its brand image (Stephen, 2009).

 

Trademark is one of the most valuable assets of the commercial entity when used properly. There are numerous companies name (Coco Chanel), popular song marks (MGM – Entertainment- Roaring Lion), symbol (the golden arch of McDonalds) and catchphrase (‘Hasta La Vista baby’ in Terminator movie) which are all considered trademark ("Trademark "Sound Mark" Examples", 2018). Other famous examples of trademark include Coca Cola, Nike, Google, Canon, Adidas and HP. They have highlighted their level of originality and excellence through trademarks. Nonetheless, the most valuable and popular international trademarks are shown below (AMON, 2015).

 

Companies or individual owners using trademarks specify their origin of good through trademarks.  Trademarks and servicemarks symbolize and notifies the general public that the owner of these marks has claimed the exclusive right and ownership. Specifying that only they have the right to produce the specific product or use the specific tagline (the trademark expression) and prevents others to use a similar mark that might resemble the trademark. Nevertheless, a trademark cannot prevent another business or person from producing or marketing the same goods or service under a clearly different brand.

 

Trademark can generally be used by only those who have actually filled the trademark application. Yes, trademark needs to be registered through an application with the trademark registrar under the Trademarks Act. When the company or the individual has claimed the right to a specific mark, they are issued a registration certification and can use their appropriate symbol (TM, SM) in association with the service or good. The registration process is the same for both trademarks and servicemarks (Collen, 2017).

 

Another important factor to remember of trademarks is that they can last indefinitely as long as the owner continues to use the mark to identify its goods or services. Now let's get back to the main question, is trademark an art? No, trademark and art are two different things, however, in order to protect artistic and intellectual work, one can register it under Copyright. An art is simply a wide range of human activities which create visually appealing artifacts which express emotions, beauty or even power. Whereas, trademarks are used to distinguish a brand name, logo or tagline, remember trademark is not an art (Vaidhyanathan, 2017).

 

Differences between Trademark, Copyright and Patent

Trademark, Copyright and Patent differ significantly from each other as they are used to protect different types of intellectual property. A trademark is generally any recognizable mark such as logos, taglines and brand names, it helps to differentiate and protect the service or products of one company from competitors. The popular examples of trademark include logos, slogans, colors, sounds and designs. For instance, Apple is trademarked for its operating system which is used in all of its mobile phones, tablets, iPod and other devices.

 

It is important to protect the brand as companies have invested a lot of money and time, and they don’t want that their time to get wasted in the end. A trademark is any mark which helps the public to identify and distinguish a product or service of a particular source from its competitors. Whenever services are involved, they are referred to as servicemark and when a brand is made up of words, it is stated as wordmark. Trademarks are denoted by the symbol ‘TM’ and ‘SM’. Trademarks usually expire after 10 years and can be renewed for another 10 years ("Trademarks", 2018).

 

Whereas, Copyright is used to protect original artistic or literary work such as books, sculptures, music, paintings, photographs and videos. Further, Copyright is purchased by artists, architects, authors, choreographers and various other creative professionals. Although, the creative idea is not capable of being Copyrighted, but its tangible form can easily be protected. Definitely, Copyright provides the individual with legal evidence and a notice of ownership, which can be sued in the court against infringement of the copyright. In other words, copyright includes a group of exclusive rights such as adaption, distribution and copying of the work, which is with the owner. Copyright applies to an extensive range of works including dramatic works, sheet music, paintings, sound recordings, maps, computer programs, photographs, and motion pictures. Copyright often lasts for the lifetime of the owner as well as 50 to 70 years after the creator's death (McJohn, 2006).

 

Sometimes, trademarks overlap with copyrights, for instance, a company logo might be registered as Trademark along with the artistic work being registered under Copyright.

 

However, a patent is generally used when an individual or organization wants to protect its invention. A holder of the patent can force others to not produce, use, market or even sell the invention for a limited time only. For instance, a business has invented a smart and totally different vacuum cleaner, thus, if one needs to stop others from replicating the design and technology, one must register it under Patent. The primary objective of Patent Law is to encourage innovation and commercialization of technological advancements. The patent rights last for 14 years from the date of the grant. Unlike the creative property which is protected by copyrights or trademarks, the inventions and practical designs can only be protected under a patent ("Trademark, Patent, or Copyright?”, 2018)

 

     

Besides this, in order to qualify for a patent, one must have an invention which must be nonobvious and novel along with having usefulness. Here, nonobvious means the invention can't be immediately obvious, whereas novel refers to new and not known by anyone else.

 

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