A "trademark" is any word, phrase, logo or design that identifies the source of goods or services. Trademarks are used to distinguish one's products and services from those of another. The strength of a trademark depends on its distinctiveness. Along the distinctiveness spectrum are five generally recognized categories of trademarks, which are described below from strongest to weakest.
Fanciful Trademarks: These marks have no inherent meaning in any language, but are instead invented or coined specifically as a brand to identify goods or services. Fanciful marks offer the greatest protection against those who later may use the same or similar marks for related goods and services. Examples of fanciful marks include PEPSI and KODAK.
Arbitrary Trademarks: Marks in this category have an everyday dictionary meaning, but are used in connection with goods or services that are completely unrelated to that inherent connotation. Arbitrary marks include
Suggestive Trademarks: These marks hint at or suggest some quality or characteristic of goods or services, but do not directly describe them. Suggestive marks require imagination, thought or perception to connect them to the goods or services, but do not immediately convey what those goods or services are. SWEETARTS, KITCHENAID, and EASY-BAKE fall into this category.
Descriptive and Laudatory Trademarks: Descriptive marks directly describe an ingredient, quality, characteristic, function, feature, nature, purpose, or use of the goods or services with which they are used. Such marks cannot, at least initially, gain all the benefits of a registration on the
Generic Words: These words are not trademarks and cannot be registered because they do not function as a source identifier. Rather, generic words represent a common name for the goods or services themselves. Take, for instance, the examples of
Oftentimes, descriptive or suggestive marks are preferred for marketing purposes, because they quickly convey the type of goods or services being offered and generally require less marketing effort and expense to build brand recognition. However, arbitrary and fanciful marks offer greater protection because they do not have any immediately recognizable association with the goods or services. Although it is more difficult to build brand recognition with these types of marks, they offer the best protection and are the easiest to enforce and defend against infringement.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
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