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What was the World Trade Organization's contribution to patent law? What
does it protect? - ✔✔Established TRIPS (trade related intellectual property
rights) which set minimum requirements for intellectual property protection
in all member nations including trademarks, trade secrets, patents, and
copyrights
What is a trademark? - ✔✔a distinctive word, phrase, symbol, or design
that identifies the origin of a good
When is a mark protectable? - ✔✔it must serve as a "source identifier" and
have secondary meaning
What is trade dress? When must secondary meaning be proven? - ✔✔very
distinctive packaging or nonfunctional product design that serves the same
purpose as a trademark. Includes distinctive design of a restaurant's
exterior and interior décor if they can prove that the design has gained
'secondary meaning'.
Secondary meaning does not have to be proved for packaging.
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,What are the four trademark categories? - ✔✔generic, descriptive,
suggestive, fanciful/arbitrary
What is a generic trademark? How protectable is it? Give an example. -
✔✔describe an entire class of goods or services rather than a particular
seller's version of a good or service. Not protectable by itself.
Ex. car
What is a descriptive trademark? How protectable is it? Give an example. -
✔✔identifies a characteristic or quality of a product or service. Includes last
names. Only protectable when secondary meaning can be proven.
Ex. Dell, Vision Center
What is a suggestive trademark? How protectable is it? Give an example. -
✔✔Suggests, rather than describes, some characteristics of the good sold.
can be a protectable mark even without actual proof of acquired secondary
meaning because courts view suggestive terms as being "inherently
distinctive."
Ex. Coppertone
What is a fanciful/arbitrary trademark? How protectable is it? Give an
example. - ✔✔words coined specifically for trademark. Usually seen as
inherently distinctive.
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, Ex. Apple, Kodak
What are the three types of trademark system? Which does the US use? -
✔✔geography, priority, and registration. The US uses a hybrid of all three
that provides protection based on the geographic area in which a mark has
been used in connection with sales, and then provides expanded protection
where the mark is registered.
What is a requirement for a product before a trademark can be registered?
Is a mark protectable if this isn't met? - ✔✔interstate commerce must be
established. Under the Lanham Act if an applicant has not yet made
interstate use of a mark but has a good faith intention (bona fide intent) to
do so in the near future (1-3 years), they declare an "Intent to Use" (ITU)
What constitutes a likelihood of confusion? What are the factors affecting
this? When is likelihood of confusion not allowed? - ✔✔if consumers are
likely to be misled into believing that the brand is associated with another
brand or sponsors what that other brand is doing. Factors: similarity of
design of the marks, similarity of product, proof of confusion among actual
buyers, and marketing surveys of prospective purchasers showing an
appreciable misassociation.
If the products are dissimilar and unrelated, however, even identical marks
may not cause confusion.
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