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Trademark basics
A short orientation to how trademarks are governed in the United States.
In the United States, trademarks are governed by both state and federal law. State common law originally provided most protection; Congress passed the first federal trademark law in the late 1800s, and federal law has since expanded to cover much of that ground.
The main federal statute is the Lanham Act, enacted in 1946 and last amended in 1996 (15 U.S.C. § 1051 et seq.). Federal law is now the primary and most extensive source of protection, although state common-law actions remain available.
For protection outside the United States, rights are territorial. See our pages for the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Cuba and Puerto Rico.