WHY SURNAME TRADEMARKS ARE CONSIDERED TO BE WEAK?
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Abstract
We live along with a population of more than 1 billion belonging to different regions following different religions and customs. our incredible India is home to all the different individuals. Many of us share the same name as follower of similar traditions and practice. Carrying out business or other profession in our name has been in trend since ages as identity to whom the work belongs to. Getting one name as a trademark and as a unique identity on the other hand is contradiction to its protection of rights because we may share our name with many others.
When we talk about Success in the business world, we know that it particularly depends on the message you convey and the image you project in front of the world. A trademark distinguishes a good from other competitors and helps to establish the identity in the market place.
Starting of a business in India or in any other country, we see that most of the people keep their surnames or personal names as their company’s name. it’s not a new concept which we are talking about here, ample number of people use their surnames with their businesses to connect their identity with it and to promote their businesses by their own names. While using a surname we should be aware of its rareness and its secondary meaning of it, because there are a lot of similar surnames which may cause confusion for the public e.g. Singh and Singh, Singh and Singh associates, Khurana and Khurana etc. these surnames are common and are quite easy to create confusion for the public. A person who has a rare or uncommon surname, may get it registered and use it as trademark.
But the main concern here, is the protection and registration of such surnames, a person can register it but he cannot claim exclusive right over the mark i.e. surname and cannot even stop any other person from using it.
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