Trademark Practice Areas

A trademark is "any word, name, symbol, or device or any combination thereof” which identifies the goods or services of a business and will distinguish them from those manufactured or sold by others. A trademark provides the public with an identification for products and makes the source of goods/services uniquely known. Generally, trademarks are registered with US Patent and Trademark Office but in certain cases it makes sense only to register at the state level.

Beyond a trademark, the “look and feel” of your products is called “trade dress”. Potentially it can cover all aspects of appearance, but it cannot be functional. Trade dress secures the owner protection against a “likelihood of confusion” between its goods and competing goods. When someone uses your trade dress in an unauthorized way, it creates “unfair competition”. For a further discussion on trademarks click here.