A registered mark does not prevent all use of the mark. In some situations, another party may use someone else’s trademark to describe the qualities that the trademark represents rather than to use is as a source identifier. For example, use of a descriptive phrase or common name may be fair use.
Fair use of a trademark occurs when a defendant uses a descriptive trademark of another party to describe the defendant’s own product. This is the fair use defense set forth under federal trademark law. US trademark law provides that the use of the registered name, term, or device is not an infringement if the use is other than as a mark and it is use of which is descriptive of the party and is being used to fairly and in good faith, describe the goods or services of the party, or their geographic origin.
While a trademark will protect a word which is used by a manufacturer or merchant to identify goods and distinguish them from others, trademark law will not prevent the use of such a word in good faith where the primary purpose is to describe a product or service, not to infringe the trademark resembled by it. The statutory fair use defense provided in the Lanham Act prevents a trademark owner from monopolizing or appropriating a descriptive word or phrase. It allows non-owners of the trademark to accurately describe their goods. Therefore, the defense is only available when the mark at issue is descriptive, and then only where the descriptive term is used descriptively.
Judge-Made Categories of Fair Use
Although US Trademark Law contains the statutory fair use provision mentioned above, there are three additional categories where use of the trademark of another may be considered non-infringing. They are (1) nominative fair use, (2) comparative advertising as fair use, and (3) parody as fair use.
Nominative fair use involves the descriptive use of another’s mark to describe or identify the plaintiff’s goods or services, not the defendant’s. Comparative advertising involves a situation where the trademark of a competitor is used to refer to the competitor’s goods. Parody is a humorous form of social commentary and literary criticism.
Factors Considered in Determining Fair Use
Several different factors are considered by courts to determine whether a particular use is an infringing use or a fair use. Those factors are as follows:
- the manner in which the word or mark is being used by the defendant is considered;
- whether the defendant is using the word or mark in good faith is considered; and
- whether the use of the word or mark is likely to confuse consumers is also considered.
The author’s use of the mark must accurately describe the trademark owner’s product or service, the author must use the mark in a non-trademark manner and not as a source identifier of the author’s