Community Magazine November 2012

legal ease David C. Faham, Esq. When planning or growing a company, product or brand, it is vital that the name you choose is unique and recognizable enough to differentiate it from the competition and build trust in the marketplace. That’s where trademarks come in. This class of intellectual property, which is deeply rooted in commerce, functions as a “source identifier,” preventing consumer confusion about the source of a product or brand. But establishing and protecting your trademark is not always so simple. The strength of your brand identification and consistency of use determine the strength of your rights. It is also important to ensure that your “source identifier” does not infringe upon the rights of other trademark owners, even if unintended. Any activity that is likely to cause confusion among consumers as to the source of a product may result in an infringement suit and the potential loss of your brand name. This essential assessment of risk can be performed through trademark searches. Trademark searches require a thorough understanding of the many types of trademarks and their respective sources and registries. Simple Google and trademark database searches will typically not uncover potential conflicts. It is therefore prudent to protect yourself and your brand as early as possible to avoid larger expenditures of time and money in the future. Three Trademark Tenets: • Registering your company name or trademark does not necessarily give you rights to that name/mark. There may be a previous common law or registered trademark holder with preceding rights that you may be infringing on. • Your product or brand does not have to be identical to infringe on an existingmark. One standard of determining infringement is whether a “likelihood of confusion” exists. Therefore, anything confusingly or substantially similar, misspelled or spelled differently, or of the same name in a seemingly unrelated field, can be considered an infringement. • Trademark searches are not only done for registration purposes. They provide a risk assessment of possible future litigation based on analysis of potentially problematic marks. These materials are provided for informational purposes only and do not constitute legal advice or create an attorney-client relationship. garage gab Ralph Czeisler, Emil’s All Tire - Edited by Rachel Dayan • Pre-Winter Auto Maintenance Must Dos. Preparing your car for cold weather is not only important to prevent breakdowns, but also to ensure safety. Before the frigid temperatures set in, be sure to check that the battery is holding a good charge, tire pressure is adequate and stable, and that oil and antifreeze are at recommended levels. These basic diagnostic checks cost very little, but go a long way to help make sure that your car will start reliably, drive as safely as possible on snow, and give you the best engine performance. • Warranty Myth Buster. Although some dealers may suggest otherwise, having your car serviced at any licensed non-dealership mechanic will not affect your warranty coverage. On the other hand, failing to have your car serviced regularly may void certain parts of your car’s warranty. They are the trained professionals, experts in their fields and masters of their domains. Community magazine’s savants share their best tips on how you can make your life a bit simpler, more economical, and more efficient. Are you a savant in your field? Email your hints and advice to editor@communitym.com . tech know Morris Massry, Technology Partners Assoc. Skitch - Free for Android & iOS A picture tells a thousand words, but sometimes you don’t want to use a thousand words to illustrate something in a picture. With Skitch, you can annotate, edit and save your photos and scribbles fast. This is especially useful when pointing out changes that need to be made on apparel designs using arrows, highlighting issues in pictures of real estate, or writing notes directly onto a photo. Once you’re done with your changes, you can share them straight from the app via email or text. Savant 70 COMMUNITY MAGAZINE