A trademark is an important intangible asset of a company, individual or entity comprises of a distinctive sign / logo / slogan on the goods or services offered to the masses.
A trademark is a distinctive indicator used by an individual, business or entity to identify that the services or products originate from a unique source. The trademark, thus, distinguishes products or services from those of other individuals or entities who are working in the same business. A trademark may be designated by a symbol, associated to a word, phrase, name, symbol, design, image, logo or a combination of said works to provide exclusive protection rights.
The holder of a registered trademark is entitled to start legal proceedings if the holder’s trademark is infringed upon to impede unauthorized use of the mark. Having said that, registration of a Trademark is not necessarily required for a holder of a trademark to initiate a legal action; however, an unregistered trademark requires more extensive exercise to establish the rights over it and may only be protected within the jurisdiction where the mark is in use.

Trademark infringement refers to violation of the exclusive rights over the use of a trademark;. Trademark infringement occurs when an individual or entity uses a trademark that is confusingly similar or identical to a mark owned by another party, — especially where the services or products are similar or indistinguishable to the facilities or products that the original mark covers. If trademark infringement occurs, the holder of the original mark may commence legal proceedings against the party that infringed upon the trademark.
Trademark infringement undermines the rights granted in the mark. When a trademark qualifies for protection, the attached rights are protected when the mark is used in commerce or if the party was the first to register the mark with the Pakistan trademarks office.
The use of a trademark typically means the actual sale of the associated products or services to the public is reserved for the original register—.
If the mark is not used in connection with commerce, rights are transferred, only if it is registered with a Trademark Office. Registration of a trademark with a government office gives the filing party the right to use the mark nationwide, even if transactions in commerce are only limited to a certain area. Although registration with a trademark office is not required for a mark to be protected, the process does confer a series of advantages to the filing party.
If an individual or entity owns the rights to a specific mark, that party can sue subsequent parties for trademark infringement; the standard for a suit is based on the “likelihood of confusion.” More specifically, the use of trademarks in connection with commerce constitutes trademark infringement if the copied product causes consumer confusion regarding the source of the product.

Conducting a trademark search should be handled very carefully to avoid legal complications in the future. The point of a trademark search is to ensure that the trademark is not already in use by any another entity. If a company infringes on a person’s registered trademark, he or she has the right to sue for damages. To avoid costly legal battles, a trademark search should be extensively conducted. Hiring an intellectual property attorney, or other trademark search professional, may help the process achieve its goal.