Proprietary rights in relation to a trademark may be established through actual use in the marketplace, or through registration of the mark with the trademarks office.

Trademark From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2007) For other senses of this word, see Trademark (disambiguation). For guidelines on using trademarks within Wikipedia, see Wikipedia:Manual of Style (trademarks). Intellectual property law Primary rights Copyright Patents Trademarks Industrial design rights Utility models Geographical indication Trade secrets Related rights Trade names Domain names Sui generis rights Database rights Mask work Plant breeders' rights Supplementary protection certificate Indigenous intellectual property edit box A trademark or trade mark[1] or mark is a distinctive sign or indicator of some kind which is used by an individual, business organization or other legal entity to identify uniquely the source of its products and/or services to consumers, and to distinguish its products or services from those of other entities. A trademark is a type of intellectual property, and typically comprises a name, word, phrase, logo, symbol, design, image, or a combination of these elements. There is also a range of non-conventional trademarks comprising marks which do not fall into these standard categories. The owner of a registered trademark may commence legal proceedings for trademark infringement to prevent unauthorized use of that trademark. However, registration is not required. The owner of a common law trademark may also file suit, but an unregistered mark may be protectable only within the geographical area within which it has been used or in geographical areas into which it may be reasonably expected to expand. The term trademark is also used informally to refer to any distinguishing attribute by which an individual is readily identified, such as the well known characteristics of celebrities. When a trademark is used in relation to services rather than products, it may sometimes be called a service mark, particularly in the United States.