E-Business 101, Part 5: Intellectual Property - Trademarks
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Trademark law protects words, designs, color, sound and packaging that identify and distinguish the source of a product. While trademark law can provide strong name recognition and consumer awareness for an E-business, it provides limited protection of technology underlying the E-business. While traditional trademark law is based primarily on geographic usage of a trademark, an E-business is not constrained by geography, except for those limitations imposed by governments or practicality.
An E-business can create many different trademark rights. The name of the E-business is one obvious example. However, the names, logos, depictions, etc. of products and services offered by the E-business or advertised on the E-business' Web site may also have trademark rights. Moreover, the use of attention getting graphics, animations and other elements on Web sites may result in trademark rights of such elements. For example, the multi-colored top bar of the home page of the Web site found at www.iwon.com might satisfy the requirements to be a trademark. Even though their use is recommended, rights can be developed even if the standard designators "TM" and "SM" are not used for a trademark or service mark. In some cases, federal trademark protection even can be obtained for a domain name.
Another avenue for an E-business is to register the trade dress of a Web site with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Under current U.S. trademark law, a company can bring a claim against the use of "any word, term, name, symbol, or device" that is likely to cause confusion. The inclusion of "device" in this definition includes trade dress, which typically covers the overall image or impression of a product and may include elements "such as size, shape, color or color combinations, texture [or] graphics."
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