Trademarks: The retrospect, definitions, partial tools of research

Subject. Currently, the growing competition and the economic crisis make manufacturers and sellers actively use trademarks so as to win new business and retain customers. Over 80 percent of any buying decision depend on the visual information, rather than the reasonable approach. Legal issues of trademark use in business relations draw the attention of professional and scientific communities in Russia and abroad, dating back to far away times. Objectives. We provide the rationale for a clearer definition of trademark for purposes of legal relations, examine the partial tools for studying verbal trademarks, and conduct an experiment to prove the efficiency of tachistoscopic tools for trademark studies as part of legal examinations. Methods. The study is based on general and partial methods of research. Studying verbal trademarks, the use of tachistoscopic tools helped conduct an experiment and make conclusions, notwithstanding a small sample. Results. Trademarks circulated in business affairs even in the A.C. times. In the second half of the 19th century, advanced economies set up the legislative framework on personalization means. All corresponding regulations are still being improved consistently. The systems approach and generalization helped sort out priority views on the concept trademark and coin a more specific term, which is important for scientific and practical activities of lawyers, managers and economists. Drawing upon the experiment, we made respective conclusions and suggest extrapolating them to similar studies as part of legal examinations. Conclusions and Relevance. Trademark is a construct of law from professionals' perspectives and a symbol attracting people’s attention to goods as ordinary people perceive it. In mixed economies, consumers’ perception of goods significantly determines the producer’s market position. Therefore, many market actors need to specify the concept trademark, including legal departments of companies. Trademark disputes have become more frequent cases heard by the Russian arbitration courts. So, the specified definition and the experiment are of scientific and applied value. The findings are designated to improve the legislative framework for personalization means. The tools and findings we present in our experiment can serve not only for scientific, but also practical purposes of legal examinations concerning verbal trademarks. They will also work for teaching on legal disciplines.