Protecting Your Brand: An Introduction to The Lanham Act

Lishayne King

Innovations and advances today occur at much faster and more rapid rates than experienced in past decades. With the innovation of the Internet and the ease with which entities can create websites and brand names, access to information, products, and resources can be achieved with the click of a mouse. Protecting your words, products, and resources, however, can prove difficult without knowledge of the specific safeguards and defenses that you are entitled to under the law. One of the paramount mechanisms that individuals and entities can utilize in seeking to protect their trademarked information is The Lanham Act.

The Lanham Act is the chief source of protection for trademarked information under federal law. Two specific sections of The Lanham Act in particular, are essential in the enforcement of the act. Section 32, codified at 15 U.S.C. § 1114, protects against violations of a registered mark. Section 43(a), codified at U.S.C. § 1125(a), protects consumers and businesses from dishonest business practices. These sections together are designed to prevent the confusion that may arise when one entity utilizes another entity’s trademark while engaged in business.