Trademark and brand from MilaCastillo's blog

In the context of EU intellectual property, a trademark is a sign that identifies a company. It makes it possible to distinguish one brand from another, or more precisely, to differentiate the products or services of one company from the products and services of another company.

In fact, any distinguishing mark can be considered a trademark: it can be a word, design, logo, and even a specific shape, color or sound. In particular, a registered trademark is a symbol that is viewed by the legislature as worthy of protection and protection. Any sign that can characterize the company can be registered and becomes the company's trademark. Because of this, a trademark is a different legal term than a trademark that is widely used in marketing studies. A trademark can be said to be what you protect when you want to register a trademark. Every consumer who knows a company has an idea of ​​its products and services, as well as a general idea of ​​the company as such. That idea is the brand.

Trademark is a recognizable design, phrase, or mark that distinguishes a product or service from a particular source from those of others. Sometimes a mark used to identify a service is called a service mark, especially in the United States. Brand owners can be corporate organizations, legal entities, or individuals and are usually found on a label, packaging, coupon, the product itself, or sometimes even on corporate buildings. The main purpose of a brand is to communicate that the product in question comes from a unique source and to distinguish it from other, similar products. For example, the registration of a trademark serves as protection for a brand name in order to preserve its original authorship.

Trademarks are protected by intellectual property rights. Intellectual property refers to a creation of the mind and a monopoly on this mind that is transferred to the owner of this intellectual property and is legally protected. Brands, patents, copyrights and design rights are all part of intellectual property. Any unauthorized use of the trademark by manufacturing or trading counterfeit consumer goods is a violation of intellectual property rights known as trademark piracy. In the event of such an infringement, the trademark owner can take legal action against a trademark infringement.

Reasons for registering and protecting your trademark
Some countries, including the United States and Canada, recognize common law trademark rights that allow steps to be taken to protect a brand name even if no trademark has been registered on it. Nevertheless, compared to registered trademarks, it offers significantly less legal protection. Most countries now require formal trademark registration in order to take legal action against trademark infringement. Below is a quick guide on how to go through the process of registering your own trademark.

If the brand name is already used before the trademark is registered, there is the option of applying for registration based on the concept of commercial use, specifying the commercial use and the date of first use Used. The declaration is usually contained in the standard application form, which must then be submitted to the competent authority with a sample showing the use of the brand name. Before submitting the registration form, it is necessary to search for existing trademarks for a particular brand name - this can be done online.

Recent major trademark infringement cases
There are numerous cases of trademark infringement in the history of industrial property protection. Each of them should remind you that an infringement of intellectual property is just as serious as an infringement of physical property.

# 1 Louis Vuitton versus Louis Vuiton Dak
The fashion designer Louis Vuitton recently won a trademark lawsuit against the South Korean fried chicken restaurant Louis Vuiton Dak. The court ruled that not only was the name of the restaurant too similar to the fashion brand, but the logo and packaging were also very similar to the iconic images of the designer.

# 2 Starbucks versus Freddocino
In 2016, Starbucks took legal action against the company that owns the Coffee Culture Cafe in New York after it launched a drink called Freddocino. Starbucks owns a brand for the term fappucino and states that not only do both names have too many similarities, but that both drinks have the same structure and look.

# 3 3M vs. 3N
3M commenced a lawsuit against a Chinese company using the 3N brand name and won on the grounds that the company had succeeded in gaining customers and a significant market share thanks to its similarities to 3M and its distinctiveness and reputation to win.