De Facto Secondary Meaning at Law Glossary
What is it? De facto secondary meaning exists where an interest in the public good overrides the protection of a mark that otherwise serves to identify source for consumers and has acquired secondary meaning. De facto secondary meaning exists when a mark is generic or functional. These types of marks can never be granted exclusive rights, even if the mark owner has done everything possible to preserve rights in the mark through proper usage, policing or a heavy advertising campaign resulting in secondary meaning. There is a strong public interest in allowing competitors to all use words that inform the public about the nature of their goods, but doing so is nearly impossible if exclusive rights are granted in the words necessary to describe a product. For this reason, the doctrine of de facto secondary meaning precludes the granting of monopoly powers available under trademark law.Legal Definition Added By: Gabriella
The De Facto Secondary Meaning definition has been viewed 1348 Time(s)!
Send To Friends!
If you'd like to send the De Facto Secondary Meaning definition to yourself or to your friends/colleagues, just enter the e-mail addresses in the boxes below -We hope you now understand the meaning of De Facto Secondary Meaning. If you need any more information on this term, please don't hesitate to contact us.
Other Similar Law Terms:
Legal Term EQUAL PROTECTION CLAUSE is Portion of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that prohibits discrimination by state government institutions. The clause grants all people equal protection of the laws, which means that the states must apply the law equally and cannot givLegal Term DEFINED BENEFIT PLAN is A type of retirement plan that specifies how much in benefits it will pay out to a retiree.
Legal Term SETTLEMENT is An agreement between the parties disposing of a lawsuit.
Legal Term CONTRIBUTORY NEGLIGENCE is Prevents a party from recovering for damages if he or she contributed in any way to the injury. Not all states follow this system.
Legal Term Creditor is Someone owed money.