Trademark Infringement

The law grants certain rights to an owner of a registered trademark. These rights include the ability to exclude others from using similar marks that are likely to cause confusion with the source of goods and services associated with your mark. As a business owner and owner of a trademark, you have a duty to enforce your mark against ne’er-do-wells and others who wish to trade off of the goodwill built up in your mark. The law also provides remedies for owners whose rights have been infringed.

The most obvious remedy is that of damages. As a trademark owner, you may be entitled to collect money damages from those who use your mark in violation of your rights. Under the Lanham Act, trademark owners may collect actual damages, or the amount of money that they can show the infringer actually damaged the trademark owner’s business, or statutory damages. Statutory damages allow a trademark owner to recover when they have difficulty showing how much they have been actually damaged. This often occurs when infringers fail to keep records of their use of your mark.

Another powerful remedy is injunctive relief. An injunction is an order by the court that either tells someone to stop doing something or tells them to start doing something. In a trademark infringement case, the trademark owner wants the infringer to stop using the mark and asks the court to enter an order to that effect. The standard for obtaining an injunction can be difficult to meet, but, if you can meet it, then an injunction can serve to stop the infringer from further violating your rights. As part of your injunctive relief, you might also ask the court to order the freezing of the infringer’s assets or to order the seizure of the infringing materials. These remedies are not typical, but are available in certain cases.

As a business owner, then, you need to be aware of new startups or existing, related businesses who may want to use your mark for their own purposes. When that occurs, you should be aware of the remedies that you may have available under the law.