Patent infringement and trademark violations are two different arenas. Patent infringement involves the use, marketing, sale, or profit from and invention that is patented under someone else’s name or company. A trademark violator is someone who has attempted to use a company’s or individual’s trademark for personal or financial gain. A trademark is the company’s or individual’s “calling card,” the logo or point of reference used by that company to create associations.
Coca-Cola is a registered trademark, and thus anyone marketing under the name Coca-Cola would then be a trademark violator. Anyone who rebottled Coca-Cola in a different packaging and sold it as a Coke product is then looking at patent infringement. A patent infringement occurs when you steal someone else’s invention (or create it on your own) and then market it as your own product.
A trademark violator may very well commit the act accidentally, just as easily as a patent infringement can happen accidentally. With the vast number of trademarks and new inventions it is possible for someone to accidentally become a trademark violator or to accidentally commit patent infringement. In the eyes of the law, however, there is little difference between committing these acts accidentally or intentionally as explained on http://blogs.bu.edu/suechen/inventhelp-taking-inventions-from-paper-to-the-global-marketplace/.
If a trademark violator initiates a violation of trademark laws, which can be anything from attempting to register the same trademark picture as another company or using another company’s logo as their own, they are subject to significant fines and damage awards to the company they offended. The standards are held so high against trademark violators as a reflection of the importance of fair free enterprise.
There is a great amount of effort that companies and individuals put into producing original concepts and creations and should be financially rewarded for their hard work and their ability to make daily life either better, easier, or more rewarding. On the basis of free enterprise and fairness in the free market, trademark violators are risking the financial health of those who truly deserve it. A trademark violator is equivalent to an intellectual material thief.
Patent infringement is equally as harmful to companies large and small. Patent infringement robs companies of their right to market their own creative products exclusively and to profit from their ability to be the first to create said product. The law protects the rights of a company or individual to market their invention exclusively if they take the time to go through the process of obtaining a patent. Thus, patent infringement is taken rather seriously in the United States. Read more about patenting an idea and how to do it right from http://www.sfweekly.com/sponsored/why-inventors-turn-to-experts-like-inventhelp/.