Trade Marks and the Ways of Protection in the Laws which is Valid in Palestine

The main function of the trademark is to enable consumers to identity a product (wherever a good or a service) of a particular company so as to distinguish it from other identical or similar products provided by competitors. Consumers who are satisfied with a given product are likely to buy or use the product again in the future, for this; they need to be able to distinguish easily between identical or similar products.In general any distinctive, words, letters, numerals, drawings, colours, pictures, shapes, logotypes, labels, or combinations of the above used to distinguish between the goods and the services of different companies may be considered a trademark. The subject of the trade mark includes the following points: Chapter one includes: The concept of the trade marks، and the different kinds of the trademarks, such as the name, signatures, words, letters, numbers….elc, that can be used as trade marks, and in this chapter will deal with the necessary conditions of the trade marks, which are distinguished, new and legal. This study treats the different aspects of the legal protection of the trade marks which are: the civil protection and criminal protection. Chapter tow includes: The civil protection of the trade mark is available for registered trademarks only as for unregistered trade mark it's not covered by the civil protection according to the amended trademarks law except for the well-known trade marks. Chapter three includes: The criminal protection such as: 1-The crime of imitation of trademarks. 2-The usage of falsified trademarks. 3-The usage of trademarks belonging to anther merchant. 4-To sell or expose for selling materials under falsified trademarks or marks belonging to another. These crimes receive penal punishments such as imprisonment and fines.