A trademark is a distinctive mark used for identifying goods and/or services or any specific individual, enterprise, or organization associated with such goods and/or services in business activities, which is an indispensable element and symbol in a commercial society. Trademarks originated from ancient times. By then, artisans printed their signatures or "marks" on their artworks or practical products as a sign to distinguish their goods or services from those of others and, thus, easy for recognition by consumers.

A trademark is expressed and represented in different forms. Originally, trademarks are visually represented through words, graphics, letters, numbers, and three-dimensional images on printed media. Along with the development of human society, people not only visually represent trademarks by printed media, but also added sound trademarks and scent trademarks, which are respectively represented by sound and scent.

Nowadays, we are entering into an information age of the Internet. The representation of brands is shifting from the offline mode to more of the online mode. The unrivaled superiority of the Internet media enabled it becoming one of the most important media channels of brand promotion. With the shift of focus of promotion media, the exposure of brands on the Internet, mobile Internet, and Internet of Things is increased significantly. Facing with the digital technology-based Internet, trademarks which take visualization, scent, and sound as their brand marks are dwarfed. To keep up with the pace of development of the Internet, the expression and representation of trademarks need to make appropriate change by combining with the Internet. Only by that can trademarks continue to service their brands in the Internet age.

Meanwhile, people need an authoritative symbol of the Internet trademark that is uniform with conventional trademarks on the Internet so that Internet users and consumers may search, identify, and distinguish the source of various goods and services on the Internet by virtue of such symbol, reduce the disorder and disturbance in recognition and use of trademarks caused by inconsistent trademark names used on or off the Internet, so as to minimize the loss resulted from buying fake goods and services or mistakenly logging on phishing websites. At the same time, rights holders of offline trademarks wish to have their trademark rights extended, expanded, and protected on the Internet, so as to realize a unified expression, management, use, and promotion of their trademarks both online and offline, prevent their trademarks from being infringed by faking and counterfeiting, and protect their business interests on the Internet.

In order to protect the interests of consumers, Internet users, merchants, and enterprises, create a healthy and sustainable environment of the Internet,  and make more outstanding representation of trademarks on the Internet, ".商标" is born at the right moment in the information age of the Internet, which is an online innovative trademark consisting of "Internet domain name + trademark", is a real, authoritative, and distinctive network symbol for Internet users and consumers to search, identify, and distinguish the source of any goods, services, or any individual, enterprise, or organization related to such goods or services, and is an intellectual property-symbol by which a trademark right holder may use, express, promote, manifest, and protect its trademark right on the World Wide Web and extend and expand its trademark right on the Internet with both the rights of trademarks and domain names.