Nowadays several terms are applied in Ukraine for definition of the same object – the trademark. Such term are: the “trademark” (торгова марка), the “product mark” (товарний знак), the “services and goods trade mark” (знак для товарів та послуг). Sometimes, by mistake, the terms created as a result of confusing and mixture of the proviously mentioned definitions, are used, for example, “trade mark”,“goods mark”. Each of the official definitions specified above, has its own meaning and its own area of application.
Trademark – the literary translation of the Ukrainian term from English “trade mark” is the term, commonly applied throughout the world. It has been presented in the Ukrainian law in 2004 when the new Civil Code of Ukraine has come into force. The Civil Code gives the following definition of trademark: “Trademark is any designation ar a combination of designations, that can be used for separation of the goods/services produced/provided by one person from the goods/services produced/provided by any other person».
Product Mark – term taken from the Russian legislation термин российского законодательства, as applied parallel to the term “Service Mark”. Their definitions can be found on the Law Of Russian Federation “On the product marks, service marks and geographical indications”: «product mark and service mark (hereafer refered to as the product mark) is designation used for the prupose of individualization of goods, services provided by the natural or legal persons». The term “product mark” is not applied in the Ukrainian statutory laws but is commonly used as analogue to the Russian term.
“Services and Goods Trade Mark” is the term applied in Ukrainian statutory law, i.e. the Law of Ukraine “On the protection of rights on services and goods trade marks” enforced in 19993. Notwithstanding the numerous amendments, it is still in force. Under this law the services and goods trade mark is the designation that defines the goods /services of certain person from goods/services of any other person».
Accordingly all the terms specified, define the same object of legal protection and are synonyms. Thus from our point of view, these terms can be freely applied parallel or instead of each other, as synonyms.
Except of this, in business environment as well as in fiction, the most commonly applied nowadays is the term”brand” . This term serves for the definition of trademarks that gained public recignition and popularity. From our point of view, this term can also be applied as a synonym of terms specified above.