Trademark
A company's most valuable asset may be its brand. A trademark communicates the quality of a company's goods and services, and distinguishes a good or service from a competing brand. This distinguishing nature of a trademark is psychological by allowing a consumer to identify a particular source of a good or service he or she has grown to trust. Consequently, companies should actively protect its trademarks as such protection extended to assets and goodwill, including a company's image, reputation, and expectation of repeat patronage.

Trademark Infringement
Protection is afforded to a trademark and an infrigement occurs where a person or company uses a reproduction of a distinctive mark with the sale of a good or service, or in an advertisement, likely confusing the public about the source of the good or service sold.

Distinction
For distinction, a mark or brand is generally arbitrary or fanciful, such as "Minolta" or "Pepsi," or suggestive, such as "Roach Motel" or "Green Giant." Distinction does not include a generic name associated with an object or intangible, such as "milk" or "pizza," where a consumer could not identify the source of a good or service. In some cases, a genetic brand may later acquire distinctiveness, such as "Tastee," or lose distinctiveness, such as "apirin" or "thermos."

The loss a mark's distinctiveness may occur where a mark's owner fails to identify or oversee the use of its mark by others, and protect its mark by prohibiting others from improperly using the mark. Current technological capabilities, including monitoring services, offer opportunities to police and manage a mark or brand through means other than exclusive reliance on traditional legal rights and remedies.

Likelihood of Confusion
For an infringement of a company's mark to occur, a likelihood of confusion must exist among consumers. There must exist a similar geographic area of use, and manner of concurrent use use for a mark seeking protection and the alleged infringing mark. Instances where there may be confusion among consumers of marks may include where there are similarities of appearance, sounds, meanings, buyers, marketing channels, or the methods utilized to present a mark. Where two marks are associated with the same or similar kind of good or service, there is a greater likelihood of confusion about a good's or service's source.

Gulf Beverages is a hypothetical company selling soft drinks and uses "Wazzu" to identify its beverages. Gulf Beverages' use of "Wazzu" would not prohibit Breeze, a company selling umbrellas, from using "Wazzu" to identify its goods because Gulf Beverages and Breeze do not compete with one another with the same type of good and for the same customers. Confusion among customers, therefore, is unlikely about the source of the soft drinks and umbrellas. If Breeze, however, sells a beverage named "Wazzu" to customers in the same geographic market as Gulf Beverages, then infringement is likely, assuming Gulf Beverages sold beverages with the "Wazzu" brand prior to Breeze's use of "Wazzu." In such a case, Gulf Beverages may seek to prevent Breeze from usnig the "Wazzu" brand, or a similar brand, because confusion is likely among the public; it is difficult for consumers to readily determine the source of the "Wazzu" beverage.