A trademark is a sign capable of distinguishing the goods or services of one enterprise from those of another e.g. Coca cola v Pepsi. Without a robust trademark system, how can a consumer or business have confidence in what they are buying?
An industrial design constitutes the ornamental aspects of an article. It may consist of three dimensional features, such as the shape of an article, or two dimensional features, such as patterns lines or colour e.g. the shape of a car or the pattern on a dress can be industrial designs.
Trademarks and industrial designs are intellectual property rights.
Industries which make intensive use of intellectual property rights, including trademarks and industrial designs, generate 39% of all jobs in the European Union (83.3 million jobs) and are responsible for 45% of the European Union’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), which is equivalent to €6.6 trillion Euros.
As a result, it can be concluded that intellectual property rights are the foundation of a modern economy.
According to Interpol, the unauthorised use of intellectual property rights, including trademarks and industrial designs, is one of the main sources of funding for organised crime. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has valued the unauthorised trade in intellectual property rights at up to $509-Billion USD a year.