Good Faith Defense at Law Glossary

What is it? When a defendant claims that use of plaintiffs mark is defensible as a fair use, one deciding factor is whether or not the defendant was exercising good faith. Good faith means that the defendant did not use the mark in order to cash in on the plaintiffs hard work in generating goodwill with consumers. If it appears that defendant was justifiably using the mark in order to describe the underlying goods or services, then the defendant will likely be found to have had good faith in using the mark. Furthermore, since the plaintiff in a trademark lawsuit is often seeking injunctive relief, which is an equitable remedy requiring the balancing of harms, whether or not the defendant exercised good faith or bad faith can have a considerable impact on the courts decision.

Legal Definition Added By: Michael

Send To Friends!

If you'd like to send the Good Faith Defense 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 Good Faith Defense. If you need any more information on this term, please don't hesitate to contact us.

Other Similar Law Terms:

Legal Term Attachment is Taking a persons property to satisfy a courtordered debt.

Legal Term Constable is A county officer of the court whose duties correspond to those of a sheriff in relation to civil process.

Legal Term Default is Failure to respond to a lawsuit.

Legal Term misprision of felony is the failure to report a known crime; concealment of a crime.

Legal Term Standing, requirement in an cancellation action is To file for the cancellation of another partys mark, the petitioner must believe he or she is damaged by the existence of the registration sought to be canceled. Typically standing in a cancellation action will exist there is a likelihood of confusion with petitioners mark or when the petitioners application was rejected on the basis of the challenged marks prior right.