Is The Mark Used As A Trademark Or A Trade Name?

Apple Inc. sells Apple-branded computers. Is Apple a trademark or a trade name? And what's the difference anyway? And perhaps most importantly, why should you even care?

A trademark is a protectable brand that distinguishes the source of goods or services in the marketplace. A trade name is merely a business name that may or may not overlap with a company's trademark rights. It could be a trading name, doing-business-as, or operating-as, such as 1234567 Alberta Ltd. doing business as ABC Trading, where ABC Trading is the trade name. In the case of Apple, the company name "Apple Inc." mirrors the company's core mark (no pun intended). If we think back to earlier times, the trade name "Research in Motion" was used by a certain business whose main product was sold under a different trademark: BLACKBERRY.