Trademarks and Trademarks Laws

Yale Fishman Associates is one of NYC’S finest legal firms. As they explain, a trademark is any word, name, symbol, or design, or even a combination of those, which is used in commerce with the purpose to identify and distinguish goods of a manufacturer or seller, and to indicate the source of those goods.

Trademarks protect companies’ names and identify their marks of products. Their main purpose is to make it easy for the consumer to distinguish competitors. Once a business starts using a certain mark to identify its company, a trademark is automatically assumed. So instead of reading the label, consumers can look for the trademark. For example, rather than asking a store sells who made a certain show, consumers can look for the identifying symbols.

Although as Yale Fishman Associates' list states, almost all trademarks are words, phrases, logos or symbols, it is also possible that shapes, sounds, fragrances or colors are registered as trademarks. Recently, the trademark law also included trade dress and antidilution protection. For example, the unique shape of a Coca-Cola bottle might serve as identifying features, and that feature falls generally under the term trade dress. But Fishman's Associates add that trade dress can be only protected if consumers associate that feature with a manufacturer and not a product in general.

Trademarks are governed by both state and federal law. There are two basic requirements that need to be met in order for a mark to be eligible for trademark protection. Yale Fishman Associates inform that it must be in use in commerce and it must be distinctive. The first requirement for use in commerce is found on the basis that trademark law is constitutionally grounded in the congressional power to regulate interstate commerce. Thus, if a mark is not in use in commerce, registration may still be permitted if the applicant is able to establish in writing his intent to use the mark in commerce at a future date. The second requirement for distinction applies to a trademark's capacity for identifying and distinguishing particular good and distinguishing that good from other producer or source.

Yale Fishman: Motivation

Every human being tends to please, but firstly tries to avoid pain. Yale Fishman, attorney from New York explains that motivation is the crucial element in setting and attaining goals. Almost all high-achievers are marked by a strong motive to achieve. In fact when we want to motivate someone, we want him to go in the direction which suits us, and the best way to achieve this is to provide a framework in which the desired results need to be accomplished. In case there are no visible results, it is time to apply a different, but always right method. A proper method is one that works, while the ability to motivate is a quality trait of successful businessman.

According to Yale Fishman and his Associates - discipline isn’t the key element to achieving goals, and motivation and focus are the foundation of success and achievement. Both internal and external factors stimulate desire and energy in people to be interested in the long run and develop a commitment or an effort to attain a certain goal.

In order to understand the process of motivation, and be able to determine the moment when reward as motivation gives real results, we need to go back to the beginning. When we want someone's behavior to be directed towards meeting this goal, especially when we get to determine the goal, first and foremost we need to answer this person’s basic question "what's in it for me"? Throughout their years in business, Yale Fishman Associates have come to the realization that the best way to motivate people is to satisfy their unmet needs. However, most often these needs are different and difficult to predict, and therefore a reward system is a great way to encourage them towards the desired behavior.

Today there are many theories about the human’s needs and its hierarchy of evolution. Each of these theories or concepts agree on one things, and that is that only when you fulfill some of the lower or smaller needs, you can strive towards satisfying your bigger or higher needs. External motivation requires someone else like a manager, management, or system to motivate us with the help of bonuses, raises, praise, promotion, punishment or criticism. However, Fishman stresses that this external motivation has a limited life span, and it is necessary to be constantly renewed.

Instead, the best and most lasting motivation comes from within, and that I the internal self-motivation. It implies responsibility, freedom of action, development opportunities, interesting work, challenges, and opportunities for advancement. Unlike the external motivation, internal motivation has a long-lasting effect.