Brands like Apple, McDonald's and Dolce& Gabbana. Product names such as iPod and Big Mac. Company logos, such as McDonald's gold bows and NBC's peacock logo Almost anything can be a trademark if you indicate the source of your products and services. It can be a word, a slogan, a design, or a combination of these.
It can even be a sound, a scent, or a color. Rights to a trademark may be lost due to abandonment, improper granting or assignment, or genericity. A trademark is abandoned when its use is discontinued with the intention of not resuming it. That intention can be deduced from the circumstances.
In addition, failure to use for three consecutive years is prima facie proof of abandonment. The basic idea is that trademark law only protects brands that are used, and parties have no right to store potentially useful marks. Thus, for example, a recent case held that the Los Angeles Dodgers had abandoned the trademark rights of the Brooklyn Dodgers Major League Baseball Properties, Inc. Sed Non Olet Denarius, Ltd.
