Trademarks are essential commercial identifiers of products and services of individuals or businesses represented through symbols. Their origins can be traced back to ancient times when craftsmen imprinted their signatures or "marks" on completed works of art or other creations. Their purpose was to distinguish their work from those of others, thereby faciliating identification and differentiation by consumers and users of such works.

        Trademarks are expressed in a variety of ways. During the earliest periods of trademark usage, and up until present day, they have been expressed visually through text, pictures, letters, numbers and three-dimensional representations. Over the past century, the rapid development of commercial societies also led to new representations of trademarks beyond just visual ones and are now even include sound and smell.

        Today, humans have entered the information age and branding has undergone a significant pivot from traditional mediums to digital ones. As the internet, mobile internet and the internet-of-things continue to develop at high speeds, traditional trademark representations are becoming increasingly overshadowed at the expense of both brand owners and consumers. Therefore, trademark expresssions must keep up with the pace of consumer and technological development in order to continue to serve the brands they represent.

        Amidst all of the development and progress, there has increasingly grown a need for authoritative online trademark representations; ones that are unified with traditional trademarks so that consumers can continue to distinguish between the goods and services of different companies and organizations. Furthermore, with an increasing prevalance of malicious online intellectual property infringements, including counterfeiting and stolen consumer information, there is an even greater need for online trademark representations to protect both brands and consumers.

        In order to truly safeguard businesses and their customers online, as well as foster a healthy and sustainable internet environment, real innovation is needed in trademarks and intellectual property. In doing so, consumers will maintain the ability to distinguish between different companies products and services, their authenticity and have confidence in the security of their online experiences and transactions. At the same time, brand owners can both retain and extend their trademark and intellectual property rights from offline to online. It is under these circumstances that ". 商标" (dot Trademark) was born and will lead the evolution in intellectual property from offline to online.