From the course: Understanding Intellectual Property (2014)

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Trademark infringement

Trademark infringement

From the course: Understanding Intellectual Property (2014)

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Trademark infringement

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Now, once you've established trademark rights, what do you do? What do those rights give you? Well, they give you the right to sue people for infringement. The government is not going to protect you. You need to use your private rights to sue people for infringement. Likewise, if someone believes your use of a trademark infringes them, they have a private right to sue you for infringement. Now, what is infringement? Infringement is an analysis of whether there's a likelihood of confusion between two different marks. Courts apply this test, the trademark office applies this test. It varies a little from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. But primarily, the elements are similar. The elements of infringement include the strength of the mark. Now the strength of the mark means, is this a strong mark or a weak mark? Is this a mark that's descriptive or suggestive and therefore, slightly more weak? Or is it arbitrary and fanciful or more strong? So the first part of the analysis as to whether…

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