Discussion Post 1
There are different types of trademarks including generic mark, suggestive mark, descriptive mark, and fanciful mark among a few others. In the case of Sambucks vs. Starbucks, Sambucks violated the suggestive mark trademark which occurs when a service of good is suggesting related to another. The name Sambucks is closely related to Starbucks, a really popular franchise and hence using it violates the trademark policy acquired by Starbucks. This explanation dictates why Samantha was now allowed to call her business Sambucks.
The federal government established the requirement that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office requires that a registered trademark or service mark be put into commercial use within three years after the application has been approved. In my opinion, this requirement was to prevent malicious people from patenting ideas and hence withholding those ideas from being used by others. This way, competitors have no way of preventing other companies from trademarking their products.
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Discussion Post 2
It is interesting to see how the trademark law works. The most interesting aspect of the topic is trademark dilution. Chapter 4 clearly outlines the dilution concept by defining all types of trademarks and giving cases that involve trademark dilution. The concepts learnt show how difficult it is to come up with a brand name and logo. When a company is forming, it has to be keen enough to avoid using names that are closely related to those that have already been trademarked. There is a government database that contains all trademarked brands. It was also interesting to learn that the government recognizes trade secrets and allows such business information to be protected. The concept of trade secrets now explains why companies such as Coca Cola, Google, and Apple thrive in their competitive spaces without the competitors being able to steal their design and product concepts.
