Date:         Wed, 28 Aug 1996 08:18:52 -0500
Sender: Legal Scholarship Network <CYBERSPACE-LAW@PUBLISHER.SSRN.COM>
From: Alan Lewine <Alan_R_Lewine@SSRN.COM>
Subject:      Cyberspace-Law #27: Trademark 2
To: Multiple recipients of list CYBERSPACE-LAW
              <CYBERSPACE-LAW@PUBLISHER.SSRN.COM>

                    CYBERSPACE LAW FOR NON-LAWYERS

                           Topic: TRADEMARK

                (Number 2 of 6 on the topic TRADEMARK)

                           E-Mail Number: 27

                Date Posted: 28 August 1996, 8:20 am EST


                      *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *


     TRADEMARK 2:  How do you obtain a trademark?


     Suppose you've come up with a catchy new logo that you want
     to use on the newsletter you've started distributing. It
     looks distinctive to you, and as far as you know, no one
     else uses anything like it -- do you have a trademark?

     The answer is -- probably yes, at least once you start using
     it in connection with goods or services -- that is, once you
     start putting it on copies of the newsletter that you
     distribute. Your design, in other words, *becomes* a
     trademark (if it really is distinctive and has not been used
     in a confusingly similar way by someone else) when -- but
     only when -- you start to *use* it as a trademark.

     Just as with copyright law, there is no registration
     requirement; you don't have to register a trademark with the
     Patent and Trademark Office in order to protect it. You get
     certain benefits if you do; in particular, your trademark is
     a lot easier to protect against confusingly similar use by
     others if you have registered it. But you're not required to
     do so, and can still stop others from infringing your
     trademark if you have not registered.

     We should emphasize that the rules set forth above are those
     applicable in the United States. In many other countries,
     especially those in Europe, you have *no* trademark rights
     unless and until you formally register with the relevant
     authorities. Use of the mark alone gets you nothing in the
     way of trademark rights.


             * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
                              authors:

             Larry Lessig    David Post    Eugene Volokh

             * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


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         Yours virtually,
         Alan Lewine
         Cyberspace-Law Listmeister
         Alan_R_Lewine@SSRN.com