Trademark law is one of the three branches of Intellectual Property Law. The other branches are Patent Law and Copyright Law. As an overview, patent law guards new inventions that can be valuable by giving the owner or patentee the right to keep out other individuals from using the said invention in their enterprises. Copyright law, on the other hand, protects the rights of artists for their creation of their works, be it a book, film, or an artwork from any unauthorized imitation of the said work. Copyright law, however, has nothing to do with the idea of the creation or work; it merely protects its expression.



Trademark law, however, refers to brands and brand names. A trademark is the word, design or logo which represents a certain brand and helps people differentiate that brand from other brands. Services don't use trademarks, they use service marks which are the same as trademarks but destined for trademarks.

Basically, trademark law thwarts illegal use of a product-identifying mark or sign and guarantees consumers that the product they are purchasing are made by the same producer and are not poorly manufactured counterfeit products. The law at the same time also promises the producer or manufacturer that imitators will not reap the financial rewards. It also protects the reputation of the real manufacturer.

Trademark law also keeps a liberal competition between companies and ensures that all buyers are respected and have knowledge about the quality of the products.

Trademark law practically has an effect on creative artists as well (writers or authors, designers, etc). It endows creative artists and their business associates broad protections from any unlawful use of a trademark as long as it does not misled the public that the use was endorsed by the owner of the trademark. Trademark law and the art world connect through titles, trade dress, domain names, literary characters, and mishandling of the name of an author.

Secondary meaning is another term which pops out when speaking about trademark laws. This term is a synonym for commercial use or commercial appeal and it refers to titles. These titles are protected, no matter the field, but they have to be famous and meet some requirements. Even titles that represent one type of merchandise can obtain protection in another type of merchandise. But one shot titles are not protected by the trademark law.

All the elements that are contained by trademarks help the costumers recognize a certain type of brand and contribute to the originality of the products. Costumers are protected from buying poor quality or counterfeit products.

Current legislation applies the trademark law in other fields like the internet. Here, trademark law protects domain names used by certain companies, online publications, or any type of original information given to the public. The punishment is the same for people who make illegal use of electronic creations.

Companies can use certain characters to represent their products. This way the characters become a representation of a certain product and help people identify that product with the company. The moment a character leaves the original environment and acts as a symbol or trademark it loses it's copyright but wins the protection of trademark laws.

If a person has trademark rights they are allowed to sue anybody who will violate those rights. If someone modifies their work and claims to be original, or sells their work without approval, they will be punished for illegal intellectual property use. The importance of trademark is not only economical, but it also helps culture and ensures that people are aware of the products they buy.