Trademark Infringement

Trademark infringement is the unauthorized use of a trademark identical or confusingly similar to one already registered by another party, on the same or similar goods or services the registration covers. In the United States, Section 32 of the Lanham Act lets a trademark owner sue when such use is likely to cause confusion, mistake, or deception among consumers, and courts distinguish point of sale confusion, initial interest confusion, and post sale confusion depending on when the confusion arises; a defendant may raise defenses such as fair use, genericness, abandonment, or laches. The Trademark Counterfeiting Act of 1984 made the intentional trade in counterfeit goods a federal crime, and the 2011 ACTA trade agreement obligated its signatories, including the United States, Japan, and the European Union, to add criminal penalties for trademark and copyright infringement.