What is a trademark?
What is a service mark?
How are trademarks protected?
What makes a trademark worthy of registration?
What is trademark classification and how are trademarks classified?
What is the Nice Classification system and where can I find other general information on the protection of trademarks?
What states are parties to the Nice Agreement?

What is a trademark?
Taken from http://www.uspto.gov/go/tac/doc/basic/trade_defin.htm
“A trademark is a word, phrase, symbol, or design, or a combination of words, phrases, symbols or designs, that identifies and distinguishes the source of the goods of one party from those of others.”

There are however non-traditional trademarks that are granted protection under the national laws of various countries. For example sound trademarks are registrable in France and the United States. The vast majority of countries exclude these marks by requiring that registrable signs be visually perceptible.

In 1990 the United States first recognized a scent trademark. The Australian Trademark Act expressly provides that a scent may constitute a sign capable of being granted trademark protection. In most countries however scent trademarks are incapable of fulfilling the visual requirement of registration.

What is a service mark?
Taken from http://www.uspto.gov/go/tac/doc/basic/trade_defin.htm
“A service mark is the same as a trademark except that it identifies and distinguishes the source of a service rather than a product. Throughout the text the terms trademark and mark refer to both trademarks and service marks.”

How are trademarks protected?
Trademark rights can be established by actual use in commerce in certain countries, like the United States. There are limitations on the abilities to increase the locality of use of such a common law trademark in relation to the same mark, or even a similar mark, that has been registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. 

Many jurisdictions including the European Union and China do not recognize use based trademark rights. As a result, trademark owners who believe that they will have a need to participate in market activities in a particular country must apply for registration.

What makes a trademark worthy of registration?
Taken from http://www.inta.org/index.php?option=com_
content&task=view&id=1514&Itemid=59&getcontent=1
“ In assessing their suitability as trademarks, words can be divided into five categories. These categories range from strong words, registrable as trademarks, to weak terms, which offer no trademark protection. The stronger the mark, the more protection it will be given against other marks.”

“The categories, ranked in decreasing order in terms of strength, are:

1. Fanciful marks-coined (made-up) words that have no relation to the goods being described (e.g., EXXON for petroleum products).
2. Arbitrary Marks-existing words that contribute no meaning to the goods being described (e.g. APPLE for computers).
3. Suggestive Marks-words that suggest meaning or relation but that do not describe the goods themselves (e.g. COPPERTONE for suntan lotion).
4. Descriptive Marks-marks that describe either the goods or a characteristic of the goods. Often it is very difficult to enforce trademark rights for descriptive marks unless the mark has acquired secondary meaning (e.g. SHOELAND for a shoe store).
5. Generic terms-words that are the accepted and recognized description of a class of goods or services (e.g., computer software, facial tissue). “

What is trademark classification and how are trademarks classified?
Taken from http://www.wipo.int/classifications/nice/en/classifications.html
“The Nice Classification consists of a classification of goods and services for the purpose of registering trademarks and service marks.”

The list of Nice Classification categories can be found at:
Taken from http://www.wipo.int/classifications/nivilo/nice/index.htm#

What is the Nice Classification system and other general information on protection of trademarks can be found at:
http://www.wipo.int/classifications/nice/en/index.html

What states are parties to the Nice Agreement
http://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ShowResults.
jsp?lang=en&treaty_id=12