In simple terms, a trademark is a name or logo used by a company or an individual to distinguish their product or services from the others sold in the market. Essentially, the company or person who has registered the trademark has the exclusive right to put the trademark to use. An unauthorized use by third party would affect the rights of the person who owns the mark, and is legally actionable.

Brand

In business terms, the trademarks are referred to as brands. Brands are usually seen as a vehicle through which the goods/services are offered for sale. Once a brand is established in the market, the producer of the goods or services enjoys great privileges. The corporates are always wary of the brand image (brand value) as the loss of the brand value would actually mean deprecation in sales and reach of the goods/services. The preserving or developing of the brand image essentially means that the brand has to be protected.

Protection of a Brand

The protection of a trademark is very important for any business, irrespective of its scale of operation. Every ordinary purchaser (or prospective purchaser) identifies the source of the product or service based on the trademark it carries. When the trademark is being put to unauthorized use, an ordinary purchaser might be deceived of the source from where the products or services arise. This might result in bringing down the brand value of the trademark. When the goods or services are not from expected source, the hopes of quality from the eye of a purchaser take a backseat and results in loss of reputation for the trademark owner.

Protection for Brands are certainly available, whether it is a registered trademark or not, for

1. Protecting the rights of a seller who has been using that mark for identifying himself

2. Protecting the rights an innocent buyer who is made to believe that the goods are from a particular source

Any business requires protecting its trademark jealously so that it can be commercialized efficiently. An effective trademark protection would require the business to protects its brand (name) in all streams through an ordinary man can assimilate information. With the growth of technology, this would mean efficient handling of the online presence of any brand.

Trademarks and Domain Names

Initially domain names were intended to perform only the technical function of facilitating connectivity between computers through the Internet. However, the domain names have gained importance as an intellectual property as they are easy to remember and are in a human friendly form and have taken the form of business identifiers. The online businesses are known by their domain names rather than the actual name of their business. Such is the importance of the domain name.

The Internet of course is the world’s largest market place ever to be seen by mankind. As in any other market, the demand and competition are equally high. In such scenarios, few unethical businesses strive by capitulating on the trademarks not owned by them. They look to exploit them commercially in the online world. Manipulation of worthy trademarks is an option viable for such businesses with short sight.

Obtain Trademark Registration for your Domain Name.

Cybersquatting

Cybersquatting is the unauthorized registration or use of trademarks as Internet domain name or other identifiers of online location. Such activity results in consumer frauds causing confusion as to the true source of the website and affects the revenue of the actual trademark. The trademark owners are required to face a tough situation with the cybersquatting activity online as they constantly face attacks from cybersquatters.

Any ordinary user of the Internet would expect that a domain name containing a particular trademark be actually held by the trademark owner, and not by an unauthorized person. Therefore, the trademark owner holds a duty to protect his trademark online.

Worried your trademark may be infringed online?

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