What IS a trademark?
A trademark is a word, phrase, symbol, and/or design that identifies and distinguishes the source of the goods of one party from those of others. Trademarks protect you and your brand from others doing things that are “too similar”. This is a very gray area to define exactly what falls into this category.
As Joey points out, this definition might not be that helpful. He says to think about the phrase “Hakuna Matata” and who might own that phrase? Disney, right?! That is a great example of a trademark in action.
A trademark is when you hear or see something and it makes you think of a particular brand or business that is the source of that thing. Trademarks are the reason why sometimes when we hear Apple we think of a tech company or the reason why when we hear made-up words like Kodak or WordPress you think of specific things. These identify certain brands.
Joey says that ESPECIALLY in the online business space, it is really important to elevate your commodity from a business to a brand, meaning it can be recognizable by distinguishing elements.
