Trademark — The Origins
When you hear the word ‘trademark’, what pops up in your head?
I recently saw the movie, ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’. Absolutely loved it! As part of my after-movie routine, I googled up the cast and the real people they portrayed in the movie. One thing that stood out was the stark resemblance between two actual members of the rock band ‘Queen’ and the two actors who played them; actor Gwilym Lee who portrayed the guitarist Brian May and Joseph Mazzello as John Deacon. Throughout the film, Lee donned May’s infamous puffy hair. The curls were May’s trademark!
While this example refers to the trademark or signature look of a particular person, it serves a gentle purpose much like our traditional trademark. The puffy curls made May (Left) and Lee (Right) stand out. Now, if you were to watch the movie’s trailer or its poster you would immediately recognize the actor who plays May (I meant only those of you who didn’t know Queen that well). Trademarks that are used on goods and services also serve a similar purpose. You identify the mark, recognize the quality, associate it with a particular brand and it serves as a reminder during your future purchases.
Look around you right now, I bet you can easily spot at least 5 trademarks around you. The furniture you are on, the device you are staring at, the drink you are having etc., all have some trademarks embedded on them. Do you think trademark was there even during the old Biblical times? Or is it a creation of the 21st Century?
It is believed that trademarks are as old as trading itself. But how do we know that? Through the excavations made in Ancient Egyptian sites (approximately 3150 BCE to 30 BCE). The artifacts that were dug during the excavations were found to bear certain symbols of trade. Ancient vessels, from the Greek and Roman era, that were excavated have borne a ‘Potter’s Mark’ which may have been used to identify the potter of the vessels. Why were symbols used? Why not words, like the present day? It was because a majority of the people were illiterate, they couldn’t understand words but they could identify and recognize symbols.
It was somewhere in the 10th Century when the traders and merchants were compelled to use marks on their products that trademark took its present form. These ‘merchant marks’ were mandatory to identify the goods, in case they were lost in transit or shipwrecks, and more so as a means to force the merchants and traders to keep up to the standard laid down for the particular product. Once industrialization happened, these marks came into wider use. They were no longer used under obligation but as a mark of identification. It was from then on that trademarks gradually became protected under law. But more on that on another blog.
