INTA Updates Fact Sheets on Trademark Basics - International Trademark Association

Do your clients know where to turn to get information about the value of a trademark or how to license it? Do they even really know what a trademark is? Further, can they explain trademark dilution? Name types of online advertising?

INTA recently updated six Fact Sheets for non-lawyers on the basics of trademarks. The updated Fact Sheets, as well as 11 others, are available on the Association’s website and may be shared with clients in response to their queries, with attribution to INTA.

The Fact Sheets are part of the many reference documents and tools available to members, and some to non-members, in the Resources section of INTA’s website. Updated by INTA’s Public Information Committee, they are grouped in themes, including, for example, Introduction to Trademarks, Protecting a Trademark, and Domain Names and the Internet.

Public Information Committee Chair Melissa Nowak (Christensen O’Connor Johnson Kindness PLLC, USA) noted that in each term the Committee checks and refreshes the INTA Fact Sheets that are available to the public as well as prepares new ones on a variety of trademark basics.

“We ensure that the content, cited cases, and examples in the Fact Sheets are up to date and relevant to trademark owners worldwide,” she said. “As an attorney, I frequently refer clients to this informative, free resource.”

The following Fact Sheets have been recently updated:

Trademark Dilution—explains the basics of the concept, and provides summaries on jurisdictions, forms, and elements of dilution. It goes into terms such as blurring, tarnishment, and, in the European Union, free-riding.

Online Advertising and Use of Others’ Marks—answers more than a dozen questions ranging from what constitutes online advertising, to examples (display-based, search-based, mobile, and so on), to keywords, permission to use a trademark, or third-party use.

Learn the Language—provides nearly two dozen definitions of types of intellectual property and key agreements and laws.

Assignments, Licensing, and Valuation of Trademarks—explains how to value a trademark, as well as selling, owning, and licensing a trademark.

International Trademark Rights—guides users on how to determine in which countries to register a mark, how to register in more than one country, and what they need to know about key international agreements.

Fair Use of Trademarks (Intended for a Non-Legal Audience)—delves into what fair use is—and isn’t. It lists types of fair use and gives examples of when it applies and when it does not.

Access all the Fact Sheets.

Although every effort has been made to verify the accuracy of this article, readers are urged to check independently on matters of specific concern or interest.