What Are Trademarks?

Through our senses, we encounter trademarks for goods or services, anywhere, anytime. Trademarks indicate the source and serve to identify a particular business as the origin of the relevant goods or services. Proprietors need trademarks to connect them with customers and to develop trust and loyalty in the goods or services.

Trademarks are protectable subject matters as the purpose of the trademark law, like other intellectual property laws, is to prevent unfair competition. Any sign, or any combination of signs, capable of distinguishing the goods or services of one undertaking from those of other undertakings, are capable of constituting a trade mark. Thus any such signs, including personal names, letters, numerals, figurative elements and combination of colours as well as combination of such signs are eligible for registration as trademarks.

In designing an appropriate trademark, one considers whether the mark is easy to recognize or is pronounceable, and whether it fits in with the image of the goods or services. Point-to-point visual trademarks (such as drawings, symbols, the shape and packaging of goods) aside, point-to-multiple points non-visual signs (ie sounds and smells) may also be considered as customers are multi-sensory beings. Furthermore, both visual signs and non-visual signs can be used to form a trademark eg using aspects of goods design, moving images, colours and sounds to create motion marks.

There are just too many perfect or near-perfect substitute goods or services in the market. While it is always important to make a difference in the goods or services themselves, it is also strategic, in my view, to make use of non-traditional trademarks to reflect the creative or innovative culture of a business.