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Trademark Terms and Definitions
Provided by
Trademark Partners
Trademark:
A word,
name, graphic design, or combination of the above that is used to
indicate the source of a product and to distinguish it from other
products.
Registered Trademark:
A trademark that has been registered with the United States Patent
and Trademark Office (PTO).
Registration provides additional
public notice of the mark and nationwide protection against
trademark infringement.
Servicemark:
A
servicemark is the same as a trademark except it identifies services
instead of products. The words “trademark” and “mark” are also used
to refer to servicemarks.
Brand:
Brand also refers to trademarks but the meaning has expanded to
include all of the benefits of using a product and working with the
company that makes it.
Trademark
Symbols:
Trademarks are identified by the letters “TM” in superscript after
the name, logo, or combination of both. Servicemarks are idenified
by the letters “SM” in superscript after the mark. Registered
trademarks are identified with the
symbol “®.
Bonus Section: Patents
The following information
concerning patents is provided courtesy of the U.S. Patent and
Trademark Office. Currently Trademark Partners does not provide
patent-related services. For assistance with patents, see our
referral recommendation below.
What Is a Patent?
A patent for an invention is the
grant of a property right to the inventor, issued by the United
States Patent and Trademark Office. Generally, the term of a new
patent is 20 years from the date on which the application for the
patent was filed in the United States or, in special cases, from the
date an earlier related application was filed, subject to the
payment of maintenance fees. U.S. patent grants are effective only
within the United States, U.S. territories, and U.S. possessions.
Under certain circumstances, patent term extensions or adjustments
may be available.
The right conferred by the patent
grant is, in the language of the statute and of the grant itself,
“the right to exclude others from making, using, offering for sale,
or selling” the invention in the United States or “importing” the
invention into the United States. What is granted is not the right
to make, use, offer for sale, sell or import, but the right to
exclude others from making, using, offering for sale, selling or
importing the invention. Once a patent is issued, the patentee must
enforce the patent without aid of the USPTO.
There are three types of patents:
1) Utility patents may be granted
to anyone who invents or discovers any new and useful process,
machine, article of manufacture, or composition of matter, or any
new and useful improvement thereof;
2) Design patents
may be granted to anyone who invents a new, original, and ornamental
design for an article of manufacture; and
3) Plant patents may be granted to
anyone who invents or discovers and asexually reproduces any
distinct and new variety of plant.
Patent Laws
The Constitution of the United
States gives Congress the power to enact laws relating to patents,
in Article I, section 8, which reads “Congress shall have power . .
. to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing
for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to
their respective writings and discoveries.” Under this power
Congress has from time to time enacted various laws relating to
patents. The first patent law was enacted in 1790. The patent laws
underwent a general revision which was enacted July 19, 1952, and
which came into effect January 1, 1953. It is codified in Title 35,
United States Code. Additionally, on November 29, 1999, Congress
enacted the American Inventors Protection Act of 1999 (AIPA), which
further revised the patent laws. See Public Law 106-113, 113 Stat.
1501 (1999).
The patent law specifies the
subject matter for which a patent may be obtained and the conditions
for patentability. The law establishes the United States Patent and
Trademark Office to administer the law relating to the granting of
patents and contains various other provisions relating to patents.
For more
information on Patents, we refer you to a great site for novice and
independent inventors: Ask
the Inventors. Additional patent-related resources are listed on
our Links page.
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