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This month featuring ... Material Matters
A trademark is a word, name, symbol, or other device, or combination thereof that serves to identify the source of goods or services and distinguish them from others. Well-known trademarks include Coca-Cola(r) for a beverage and Marlboro(r) for cigarettes. A service mark identifies and serves to distinguish the sources of competing services from each other. Famous service marks are Holiday Inn(r) for hotel services and McDonald's(r) for restaurant services. In this article, for convenience, both trademarks and service marks will be referred to as "trademarks."
One of the main functions of a trademark is to prevent consumer confusion. For example, a consumer knows that he or she can get the same quality food in a McDonald's in Pennsylvania as he or she can from a McDonald's in California. Given our global economy, the importance of trademarks cannot be overstated.
The law of trademarks is designed to prevent competitors from confusing customers into thinking that they are buying products and services from a trusted, known source when in reality, this is not the case. A competitor who uses a trademark that is confusingly similar to an existing trademark can be prevented from doing so by the application of trademark law. This usually occurs when...