eBay has been under attack by makers of luxury goods for a number of years. Many high end manufacturers claim that eBay allows the sale of counterfeit products, damaging the reputation and revenue of the original manufacturers.

When it comes to trademarking, product manufacturers must protect themselves and their products from imitators, but must also be careful to avoid infringing on others trademarks. It makes sense to take a lot of time over the printing of product packaging and product labelling, since this information could put you on the wrong side of the law.

Do you have a successful or soon-to-be successful Internet business?

Congratulations. You have a wonderful website and orders are pouring in hand over fist. Maybe they have been for a long time. You registered your domain. Maybe you didn’t trademark your domain name, but that’s okay, isn’t it? Who has the time to bother with that when you have a business to run?

Unfortunately, Thailand is often seen as a haven for counterfeiters, with fake Gucci, Prada, Louis Vuitton and Sass & Bide abounding in certain shopping malls.

One of the most important questions a business owner can ask is, “should I trademark a name?”

Successful business owners are justifiably proud of their company’s name. They’ve often worked long, hard hours and spent a lot of money in order to brand their company’s name, slogan and logo. And now they use them on all their products and signage, and in their advertising and publicity pieces.

Being a business litigation lawyer in Los Angeles for sometime I often find that people are confused about just what is a trademark. Under the modern definition of the term trademark a trademark is a designation used to identify and distinguish the goods of a person. Thus the role that the designation must play to become a trademark is to identify the source of one sellers goods and distinguish that source from other sources.

When trying to identify what your most valuable business asset, most people might fail to recognize the value of their goodwill. Goodwill is what makes people return to your company for repeat sales. The greatest symbol of your goodwill is your trademark. Which brings us to define what exactly a trademark is and why is it so valuable.