What is a Trademark?

Every person or object needs a name for the purpose of identification.  A product or a service is no different.

Ask a Cola drinker which brand he prefers, and the response is likely to be either ‘Coke’ or ‘Pepsi’.  In the market for the Cola beverage, these are the two most distinctive names with the most widely-recognized logos.

In other words, these are the two best-known Trademarks in the world of Colas.  Another term for trademark is brand, as commonly used in marketing or by laypeople.

trademark is therefore a word, a logo or a combination of both, that serves to identify a product or service to its consumers.    For example, at Intellect Worldwide, the *trademark under which we sell our IP services is the combination of our whirlwind logo, and the word ‘Intellect’ accompanied by the tagline ‘Your Trusted IPeople’.

intellect-logo

* In some instances, you may also come across the term ‘service mark’.  A service mark is essentially a trademark that is used to identify a service.  Therefore, you may also call the combination of our whirlwind logo, the words ‘Intellect’ and ‘Your Trusted IPeople’ our service mark since it is services, and not products, that we are selling.