Are trademarks affected by contract law?

Contract law will form the basis for joint trademark ownership rather than trademark law. However, in the absence of an agreement the law presumes that each co-owner is entitled to an equal and undivided share. Determining the proper trademark owner can require some analysis, if several entities are using a trademark.

Is a trademark a contract?

A trademark licensing agreement is a legal contract between a trademark owner and another party that have agreed to use the trademark on preapproved terms decided between the contracting parties.

What is a trademark licensing agreement?

A trademark license agreement allows the licensee to use (but not own) the licensor’s trademark in connection with agreed-on products or services. Licensing can help a company expand into new markets effectively and easily while lending the licensee an established name and reputation.

What is descriptive use?

Descriptive fair use permits use of another’s trademark to describe the user’s products or services, rather than as a trademark to indicate the source of the goods or services. Here, the trademark is used only to describe the thing rather than to identify its source, and does not imply sponsorship or endorsement.

What Cannot be registered as a trademark?

Section 13 and 14 of the Act provides that trademarks containing specific names cannot be registered. Trademarks which have a word that is commonly used of any single chemical element or chemical compound in relation to a chemical substance or preparation cannot be registered.

Can a person register a trademark?

The trademark must be applied for under the actual owner’s name. The owner of the trademark is the person who controls the nature and the quality of the goods sold or the services rendered under the trademark. The owner can be an individual.

Who can license a trademark?

Licensing gives someone other than the owner a temporary right to use the trademark while the owner maintains ownership in the mark. In most cases, the owner of a trademark will charge a fee or a royalty for granting someone a licence to use the trademark.

Can you make money off a trademark?

Trademarks can be used to make you more money with minimal effort. Because they don’t cost you anything to create and can be turned into a money-making machine with very little investment. Most of us have thought of a catchy name, slogan or phrase but did not know how to monetize it and use it to make money.

Can an unregistered trademark be licensed?

It is permissible to license an unregistered Trade mark. Permitted use without recordal of Registered User is permissible under the Trade Marks Act 1999, which came into force on September 15, 2003.

What is an example of a descriptive trademark?

In general, a descriptive mark is a word (or words) that merely describes a product or its ingredient, quality, characteristic, function, feature, purpose or use. An example of a merely descriptive mark would be COLD AND CREAMY for ice cream. Marks of this type are generally not granted trademark protection.

How do you overcome descriptive trademarks?

If a trademark is truly descriptive (i.e. there little to no chance of winning on an appeal), then providing evidence of acquired distinctiveness (if possible) or amending to the supplemental may be the only way to gain any federal rights in the descriptive trademark.

What is a descriptive trademark?can I protect it?

Can I Protect It? A descriptive trademark is one that describes the goods or services with which the mark is used. More specifically, it may describe the qualities, characteristics, feature, purpose, or function of those goods or services. Of course, it can sometimes be difficult to determine whether a trademark is descriptive.

How long does it take to trademark a descriptive word?

However, there’s no need for a proof. If the mark owner has kept the mark in continuous and exclusive use for five years, the mark qualifies for registration on the Principal Register. If the trademark examiner believes the word is still descriptive, the owner will need to prove to them it is now suggestive.

Can a generic device be a descriptive mark?

Generic devices will never be a trademark whereas devices that are fanciful, arbitrary, or suggestive are distinctive, and therefore they can function as trademarks. Descriptive marks can be trademarks when there has been a secondary meaning established; otherwise they aren’t protected.

Can a descriptive trademark be used in a vacuum?

These distinctions are very important from a trademark rights standpoint. One of the most common misconceptions about the descriptive trademark is that it is only descriptive if you can figure out what the product or service is from just the mark. However, that is not the proper test. The trademark is not considered “in a vacuum.”