>'The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) defines a trademark as a "word, phrase, symbol, or design, or a combination thereof," used to identify and distinguish a company's goods. A service mark is essentially the same thing but pertains to services rather than goods. Your mark (either trademark or service mark) is legally protected through common law once it goes into commercial use, but sometimes it makes sense to register your mark.'
This is an argument similar to "China is odd for using the metric system; to prove it here is the US using Imperial"
> Let’s start with how the U.S. is different from other countries. In the U.S., just using a brand in commerce will grant you some legal rights over the brand. Many jurisdictions, however, are “first-to-file” countries. That means whoever registers a trademark first – regardless of whether they’re using it – is the owner of the mark. For example, both China and Japan are “first-to-file” countries.
Common law trademark rights are automatic. Registration is just a stronger claim with more rights to damages. In fact to get a registered mark you must first use it in commerce as a common law mark.
