Friday, October 20, 2006 Trademark dilution By Clint Fabiosa & Andrew Ong I.Protect
Trademark dilution is a concept in trademark laws that prohibits the use or registration of a famous trademark — even for a product that belongs to a class completely different or unrelated to the famous trademark — in a way that would lessen or dilute the uniqueness of the more known mark.
Usually, trademark dilution occurs when one businessperson uses or tries to register, without authority, a famous trademark not owned by him for a product that does not compete with and have little connection with the product that the more popular mark represents.
For example, a famous trademark used by one company to refer to facial care products might be diluted if another company uses a similar mark to refer to car care products.
One should note though that the concept of trademark dilution applies only to marks or brand names that have reached stratospheric fame such as Coca-Cola, Sony and Lacoste.
THANKS. I.Protect would like to thank all those who attended the Intellectual Property Rights Seminar on Oct. 17, 2006 at the City Sports Club. Our special thanks to Innove Communications, the Department of Trade and Industry—Cebu and IP Alliance of Cebu for making the event a success.
