Question

1. What are the required elements for a valid contract?

2. What does it mean when a Trademark has been constructively abandoned (i.e. genericide)? Give examples.

Answer 1

1.Elements of Valid Contract are:

· A contract is a valid Legal document which can be formal or informal between two or more parties,

· The offer of the agreement is the basic element without which the contract doesn’t stand. Hence one party has to make an offer. This contains the arrangement of the contract makes an offer which the other needs to accept.

· The offer given by a party has to be accepted by another or else the contract doesn’t stand.

· There are considerations which mean that the other party who is been offered has to give something in return.

· The legal relations between the parties are derived from the contract. Thus the common intent of offering and acceptance has to be there for the legal application if subjected lawsuit.

· The certainty of the contract is the element that binds the contract. When a contract is made the specifications are to be clear like the guest who visits the hotel is agreed to the price and informs the Hotel about the length of their stay.

· The capacity of the parties in important like the party in the contract has to be 18 years of age to be in a contract. Hence the people in the contract should be above a certain age with a certain capacity to be in the contract as a party.

2.Constructively abandoned trademark:

When a business abandons its trademark another business with the same goods and services can claim it for the use. If the business is active no one can take their trademark as per law, provided it registered with the Government. The business can abandon its trademark for other businesses to use which is a conscious decision. If the trademark becomes a common descriptive name it’s considered to be abandoned. A good example is Otis which is an elevator manufacturing brand but is also used in the US as simple Otis or the brand name to suggest the product, the elevator.