Trademark

From Wikipedia, a free encyclopedia written in simple English for easy reading.

A trademark (or trade mark) is a special way for a business to help people to know the things the business makes. A trademark can be a name, word, phrase, symbol, logo, design, or picture. It will be a special name, word, or symbol that can only be used for the thing made by that business.

For example, Coca-Cola and Coke are trademark names for a drink. No other company can use these names. Other companies can make a drink that is similar, but they have to use a different name for their drink.

The Nike company makes sports shoes and clothes. The symbol that they use is a trademark, and no other company can use it.

[edit] Trademark and law

Trademark is a kind of law. The business tells the government of its country that it wants to use the special trademark for the thing it makes, and then the government says that no one else can use that trademark. We can call this "registering" the trademark. If someone uses the trademark in a wrong way, they might have to pay a fine. In the United States, the governing law is known as the Lanham Act.

Businesses that do things for people (services) instead of making things, can get a service mark instead of a trademark for the things they do.

When people write a word that is a trademark or show a picture or symbol that is a trademark, they should say that it is a trademark. We can write the word "Trademark", the abbreviation "TM", the symbol ™, or the letters "TM" inside a circle.

When the company tells the government that they want to use a trademark, this is called registering that trademark, so people also sometimes say "Registered trademark" or use the "®" symbol or the abbreviation "Reg."