Lawyer, Senior Lawyer of the Law Firm “NOBILI” Meshe Oleksey
Trademarks and their types
Every owner of a large or small business wants their product to be unique and different from others. This rule applies not only to goods but also to services.
Such uniqueness is given to goods and services by a trademark, which is used to make goods and services unique.
A trademark is a means of individualization of goods and services, participants in economic circulation, is the object of intellectual property rights. Also, a trademark is sometimes referred to as industrial property rights.
According to Article 492 of the Civil Code of Ukraine, a trademark can be any designation or any combination of designations that are suitable for distinguishing goods (services) produced (provided) by one person from goods (services) produced (provided) ) to other persons.
Such symbols may be, in particular, words, letters, numbers, pictorial elements, color combinations.
Pursuant to Article 494 of the above Code, the acquisition of intellectual property rights to a trademark is certified by a certificate. The conditions and procedure for issuing a certificate shall be established by law.
Such a law in Ukraine is the Law of Ukraine “On Protection of Rights to Marks for Goods and Services”. This Law regulates the relations arising in connection with the acquisition and exercise of ownership of trademarks for goods and services in Ukraine.
According to their appearance and content, trademarks can be divided into three types:
- Verbal. Verbal trademarks are original words, names. Well remembered, easily visible, easy to advertise.
The words that formed the basis for trademarks can be fictional and existing in the language. The subject of verbal trademarks can be astronomical names, proper names, names of historical figures. There is also a group of brands, which consists of names of professions, geographical names.
Verbal trademark is gaining more and more use, due to the significant advantages of designations of this kind and the ability to register and use a domain name.
- Graphic. Graphic trademark – drawings on various topics: various ornaments, symbols, images of animals, birds, stylized images of various objects.
Visual trademarks may include not only images of objects but also words in a special form. Sometimes it is difficult to make a clear distinction between verbal signs and graphic signs, as such marks may contain hand-drawn, original fonts.
- Combined. Combined trademark – contains graphic and letter elements. The composition of the combined trademark can be a combination of: picture and word; pictures and letters; pictures and numbers; words and letters; letters and numbers and much more.
Protection for the mark for goods and services shall take effect from the moment of submitting the application for its registration.