A trademark is a word, image, slogan, or other device designed to identify the goods or services of a particular party. Trademark infringement occurs when one party utilizes the mark of another in such a way as to create a likelihood of confusion, mistake and/or deception with the consuming public. The confusion created can be that the defendant's products or services are the same as that of the trademark owner, or that the defendant is somehow associated, affiliated, connected, approved, authorized or sponsored by trademark owner. Since most web sites will contain discussions of products or services, web site developers should be aware of the potential trademark issues.

• Discussing the trademarks of others. There is nothing inherently wrong with the identification of other party's products on a web page by using their trademarks. Nonetheless, some parties have made inappropriate claims of trademark infringement every time they see one of their marks on another party's page. Sometimes, however, a web site does violate the trademarks of another. Web page designers should avoid trademark usage that might cause confusion among viewers as to the source or sponsorship of the web page. Such use might well constitute trademark infringement.
• Linking to another page through that party's logo or trademark. It is common to find a link to another web page made through a company's name, trademark, or logo. In most cases, this type of link will not cause trademark concerns unless the use causes the type of confusion discussed above. However, the use of another party's logo without their permission may be more likely to raise the type of confusion that creates trademark infringement, since a graphical logo arguably creates a stronger impression of affiliation than mere text.
• Selecting a trademark To select a trademark, one should consider the relative strength of the mark. Certain marks are stronger than others. Made up words, such as Kodak or Xerox make the strongest marks. The next strongest marks are those words that have no relationship with the products or services on which they are used, such as APPLE for computers. Marks that are descriptive in nature, such as CLEARSCREEN for computer monitors, may be so weak that they will not function as a trademark until they have been heavily used. After picking a mark, a trademark search should be performed to make sure that no one else has rights to the mark.
• Protecting a trademark Once a mark has been selecting, the best way to protect a mark (in the United States) is through a federal trademark registration. If the goods or services sold under the mark will be sold internationally, trademark registrations in other countries should also be