The use of symbols such as ™ or ® is therefore optional but advised, accompanied by a full written notice. Trade-mark law appears to be divided in two types of purposes:  The Supreme Court of Canada has emasized that the tort of passing off was intended to protect the property right that plaintiffs had in the goodwill of their business. However, the protection of the public is a priority, and the Supreme Court has also said that trade-mark law was in fact "consumer protection legislation". Where a company has adopted a business name that is the same or very similar to that of a competitor, a key consideration is the potential for customers to become confused. Even where a Plaintiff has only used its brand name for a limited period of time and has little in the way of good will, a similarly-named competitor may confuse customers and cause the Plaintiff to lose control of its own reputation, thus justifying damages under the "Trade-marks Act". Courts, when interpreting the "Act", try to achieve a balance between the rights of the owner and those of others. This means taking into account the public interest in free trade and expression. According to the Supreme Court of the United States, trade-marks are very different from patents and copyrights to the extent that they require "no fancy or imagination, no genius, no laborious thought". The Supreme Court of Canada calls them "something of an anomaly". Unlike other branches of intellectual property law, protection of trade-marks does not necessarily arise from any act of creativity. Using the term "industrial property" instead of "intellectual property" may be more appropriate when referring to trade-marks, which are mainly commercial devices, although the term "property" is still misleading since trade-mark law does not grant 'owners' the right to exclude others from using it. The primary means of protecting registered trade-marks is through an action under the "Trade-marks Act". For unregistered trade-marks, the common law tort of passing off is the primary means by which producers can obtain remedies against a competitor. Section 7(b) and 7(c) of the "Trade-marks Act" also codifies the tort of passing off into federal law. Most of the law of passing off has been inherited from the UK case law. For a successful action in passing off the claimant must show three things:   A mark must be registrable in order to be fully protected under the "Trade-marks Act". Generally, all visual marks can be registered with the exception of marks that possess certain characteristics prohibited by the Act.