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Using Unique Product Features or Designs to Register Trademarks
Billy Joel famously sang about how dressing in fashion requires a lot of money. Still, today's fashionistas want to achieve stylish looks for less, whether from an established fashion house or an up-and-coming designer. While it is well known that brands register their brand names as trademarks, the issue goes beyond mere name registration. In an era where dupes flood the market, online forums often suggest that "as long as sellers don't claim to sell authentic products or use the brand name in marketing, it's a legal grey area."
It's not a legal grey area, though. Brand identity extends well beyond a brand name to encompass various elements. To truly protect your brand, consider what other features or designs can be registered as trademarks. Unique product features or signature designs can be registered as trademarks when properly positioned. Besides a brand name, the question is, what other brand elements communicate their source to consumers such that they can be registered as trademarks?
|What Can Be Registered As a Trademark?
The U.S. Trademark Act defines a trademark as "any word, name, symbol or device, or any combination thereof" used to identify and distinguish one party's goods from another's (15 U.S.C. 1127). This broad definition encompasses several different types of source identifiers, including many considered "nontraditional" because they are not words.
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