A trademark is used to protect businesses from individuals who knowingly take advantage of confusion to appropriate a market.
The popularity that often comes with a company's name becomes one of its most important assets. Just think of McDonald's or any other name that easily comes to mind.
Thus, a bakery that has filed a trademark registration request under the name "NEW YORK NEW YORK" receives a registration certificate in accordance with the provisions of the law.
Later on, a competing bakery markets a product with packaging that features a logo representing a globe bordered at the top and bottom by the words "NEW YORK", so that the eye immediately notices the words "NEW YORK NEW YORK".
The bakery holding the registration certificate appeals to the Superior Court* to prevent its competitor from using its trademark. The competitor then decides not to market its product with the logo "NEW YORK NEW YORK", but replaces it with the logo "NEW-YORKER NEW YORK". The court concludes that the packaging is "likely to create confusion in an incautious or unwary purchaser". Judge Pierre J. Dalphond therefore orders the competitor and its administrators to stop using the trademark "NEW YORK NEW YORK" or any other combination of words that may cause confusion.
A trademark serves to protect companies from certain individuals who consciously take advantage of confusion to take control of a market full of oblivious conscious consumers.
*C.S. 500-05-0534479-992, 2000-01-27
