Principal Register. Trademarks. The list of distinctive marks approved for federal trademark registration. • The register is maintained by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Only marks that are strong, distinctive, and famous are listed. 15 USCA § 1052. [Cases: Trade Regulation 151. C.J.S. Trade-Marks, Trade-Names, and Unfair Competition §§ 147, 153.]
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A trademark that not only is distinctive but also has been used and heavily advertised or widely accepted in the channels of trade over a long time, and is so well known that consumers immediately associate it with one specific product or service. • Only famous marks are protected from dilution. Eight nonexclusive statutory factors
A trademark containing common words that do not describe or suggest any characteristic of the product to which the trademark is assigned. • Because arbitrary marks are neither descriptive nor suggestive of the goods or services in connection with which they are used, they are inherently distinctive, require no proof of secondary meaning, and are
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secondary meaning 〈美〉第二含义 在商标法中，指某些本身非显着的〔noninherently distinctive〕文字或图案所附属的新的含义，消费者据此而将该文字或图案作为商品商标或服务商标，用以确定和区别该商品或服务的商业来源。对于本身非显着的商业标记，例如描述性商标〔descriptive mark〕、地理性商标〔geographic mark〕或人名商标〔personal name mark〕，其获得保护的前提是必须取得显着性〔distinctiveness〕。而这种取得的显着性即为「第二含义」，因为其含义是继该文字的第一含义〔primary meaning〕之后所取得的。例如，以「bud」(嫩芽)作啤酒的商标即使之具有第二含义，当人们想要一个「bud」时，即指安霍伊泽-比施公司〔Anheuser-Busch, Inc.〕新制造的啤酒。同样地，用「coke」(焦)作为软饮料的标记也取得了第二含义，当人们要一个「coke」时，他们就是指可口可乐公司生产的那种软饮料。而且，在美国商标法——《拉纳姆法》〔Lanham Act〕对「商标」的定义中规定，「某一语词只要能够起到标示产品出处的功能，它就是一个有效的商标，即使消费者并不明知该产品的制造商或生产商。」某一文字或图案是否具有第二含义是一个事实问题〔question of fact〕。同时，《拉纳姆法》亦规定，如果某一商标在申请人的商品上或与之相联系而进行使用，且以排他性和持续性方式进行使用达5年以上的，则可以承认其为证明该商标具有显着性的初步证据，亦即承认该商标已取得第二含义。
Trademarks. The overall appearance and image in the marketplace of a product or a commercial enterprise. • For a product, trade dress typically comprises packaging and labeling. For an enterprise, it typically comprises design and decor. If a trade dress is distinctive and nonfunctional, it may be protected under trademark law. — Also termed get-up;
antidilution act. Trademarks. A statute prohibiting actions that are likely to lessen, diminish, or erode a famous mark’s capacity to identify and distinguish goods and services, without regard to whether the action creates a likelihood of confusion, mistake, or deception. • The Federal Trademark Dilution Act provides relief against another’s commercial use of a mark
dilution. 1. The act or an instance of diminishing a thing’s strength or lessening its value. 2. Corporations. The reduction in the monetary value or voting power of stock by increasing the total number of outstanding shares. 3. Constitutional law. The limitation of the effectiveness of a particular group’s vote by legislative reapportionment or political
Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act. Trademarks. A 1999 federal law authorizing a trademark owner to obtain a federal-court order transferring ownership of a domain name from a cybersquatter to the trademark owner. • A mark’s owner must show that (1) the mark and the domain name are identical or confusingly similar; (2) the mark was distinctive
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A trademark that uses a geographic name to indicate where the goods are grown or manufactured. • This type of mark is protected at common law, and can be registered only on proof that it has acquired distinctiveness over time. — Also termed geographically descriptive mark. See SECONDARY MEANING. [Cases: Trade Regulation 32. C.J.S. Trade-Marks,
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Parliamentary law. A body that transacts business according to parliamentary law. • A deliberative assembly typically has several distinctive characteristics: (1) it is a group of people who meet all together to propose, discuss, and possibly vote on courses of action to be undertaken in the group’s name; (2) participants are free to use their
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