Forgery and malpractices have become one of the most recurring crimes in the world today. This is not just limited to physical property but also intellectual property. The property of any individual is their own and it is up to the individual to decide if they want to trademark their property. Trademark is what helps one distinguish their property from the others. Trademark is just one of the few ways in which a property can be protected from getting used or sold by others. A trademark for art can be applied to different kinds of art from tangible to intangible. It is mostly related to the logo or the name of the company.

What is a Trademark?

Trademark is a system where the property is protected through intellectual rights. It helps in distinguishing their property from that of others. There are various kinds of trademark property. Trademarks are descriptive or suggestive. Descriptive describes the business while Suggestive gives an imaginative idea. The purpose of a trademark is to help the individual earn from his property. The property can range from tangible to intangible property. It provides exclusive rights to the owner of the property to make use of it. Paying for a trademark makes it unusable by anyone else.

The benefit of having a trademark are that: 

• It helps Identify the origin of one’s goods or services.

• It gives a legal ground for the safety of one’s brand.

• It helps one take action against counterfeiting and fraud.

How does trademark contribute to Artists?

A trademark marks the property of an individual from tangible to intangible. There are artists who work hard to make art and find out that it has been copied by someone else. This happens if the artist does not know how to copyright artwork in India. When an artist works hard to gain a reputation they trademark their art and their name to protect it. In doing so they attach their work to a name or logo that is trademarked and can only be used by the artist to sell his product. Trademark prevents it from being copied or used by someone else. An artist can also file a lawsuit in case of a violation.

How does Art Trademark work in india?

Art work is an intellectual property and it is different from other arts. One needs to invest time and energy into creating an artwork. And in doing so they create their own style of work which is unique from others. To preserve this uniqueness one has to protect it. Art work in India such as that of song, dance are all mostly performed under a company banner. It is not till recently that people started creating their own brand of songs and album and dance classe. Before that it was mostly done under studios such as Tseries, Movie Studios and Dance Academies. When a song is sung for a movie it is owned by the studio contracted for making songs. It is only recently that singers and dancers have started trademarking their own brand of songs in their own names or taglines. With the emergence of social media and networking the rise in copyright and trademark has increased a creation of original content has become of utmost importance.

Conclusion

Trademark is used to provide the exclusive legality to the name or logo of a company under which an art is produced like music studio, album etc. Trademarking an art creation helps in the use of it with the permission of the artist. It also helps in the income from the art. To prevent the sale of duplicate copy artists often trademarks their art. Certain symbols or patterns make the trademarks a unique identity. An important question that needs to be answered is, should an Artist Trademark their name. At the end of the day it all depends on the artit whether they want to trademark or copyright their work or leave it to be used by the public. As there are a lot of benefits of having a trademark license it becomes necessary for many to procure such a licence while others do not want to go through the process or are unaware of the benefit of it.