Legal Definitions - Lanham Act

The Lanham Act is a law passed by the US Congress in 1946 that provides a national system for registering trademarks and protects the owner of a federally registered mark against the use of similar marks that may cause confusion among consumers or dilute the value of a famous mark.

For a mark to be eligible for trademark protection, it must be in use in commerce and distinctive. The Lanham Act defines a trademark as a mark used in commerce or registered with a bona fideintent to use it in commerce. If a mark is not in use in commerce at the time of registration, it may still be permitted if the applicant establishes a good faith intent to use the mark in commerce in the future. Exclusive rights to a trademark are awarded to the first to use it in commerce.

The second requirement, that a mark be distinctive, means that it must be able to identify and distinguish particular goods as coming from one producer or source and not another. Trademarks are divided into four categories of distinctiveness: arbitrary/fanciful, suggestive, descriptive, and generic. A mark that is categorized as either arbitrary/fanciful or suggestive is considered inherently distinctive, and exclusive rights to the mark are determined solely by priority of use. A trademark that is categorized as descriptive is only protectable as a trademark if it has acquired a secondary meaning in the minds of the consuming public. Generic terms are never eligible for trademark protection because they refer to a general class of products rather than indicating a unique source.

To establish a trademark infringement under the Lanham Act, the plaintiff must demonstrate that they have a valid and legally protectable mark, they own the mark, and the defendant's use of the mark to identify goods or services causes a likelihood of confusion. For example, if a company uses a logo that is similar to another company's logo and sells similar products, it may be considered a trademark violation if consumers are likely to confuse the two companies.