The Inception of Trademark Protection and its Transition

This paper tries to examine the concept of trademark, its origin and development. The notion of trademark has very much changed from its inception. The main underlying principle behind the trademark law was to ensure the quality of goods thereby ensuring that the consumers are protected and guided in purchasing the most suitable goods for them. The purpose of using mark on products was to identify the source of product which protects the consumer from confusion. Thus protecting consumers from confusion and thereby ensuring the quality of the product has been the main rationale behind trademark protection. The concept of attaining good will associated with the trademark also changed with the transition of time. The good will which was obtained through age old use and recognition of the consumers are now so easily attained through promotions. Industrialization fuelled for such changes with new inventions and the world became so closer that goods started to cross borders. The businessmen or the brand owners then wanted to protect their mark across these borders. Hence, there was a shift in which trademarks were recognized as property. The emergence of the concept of well-known mark was in parallel to the development of recognizing property concept in trademarks.