Unique Appearance Under Trademark Law

The need to distinguish one person's products or services from another's is at the heart of trademark protection. Typically, this is accomplished through a word, symbol, or combination of the two used in conjunction with one entity's goods or services. Trademark protection serves the public interest by making the public aware of what person or company has produced a particular product. This helps the public to make decisions as consumers. When we use products identified by a particular trademark, and like the way they function, we can return to that manufacturer, as identified by its trademark, for additional goods or services. By the same token, if we are unsatisfied, the trademark helps us to avoid that product in the future.

Web Pages Cannot Typically Function as Trademarks

Trademarks are visual in nature, but not everything that may be seen or presented to the eye can be a trademark. A trademark is a word or words, a symbol, a device, or a combination of these things used to identify the source of a product or service. Adidas is a trademark, the Nike swoosh stripe is a trademark, and the hood ornament of a Mercedes Benz is a trademark. A good trademark is easy to recognize, no matter what it's placed upon. A cap with the Mercedes symbol should be as recognizable to a Mercedes customer or fan, as a car with the same emblem. A web page, however, is dissimilar to these examples of trademarks. Imagine a shoe, or a cup, or a bicycle with a picture of a web page on it. A web page has too much information and changes too often to function well as a trademark. Yet the principles of trademark law, stressing the distinctive appearance of one product or service as compared to another, reach beyond trademarks themselves.