Prevent others from selling knock-off or confusingly similar products. A trademark protects product names, logos and packaging. The stronger the mark — the more readily a consumer will associate the mark with your product or service. Strong marks are easier to protect. We specialize in helping companies procure and enforce their trademarks in the global market. If you need assistance, please contact us.
The different types of trademarks:
The different types of trademarks:
- The strongest marks are “fanciful” marks. They are coined terms, such as Exxon and Kodak. The words do not exist in dictionaries or have a meaning outside of the association with the product or service.
- The next strongest mark is an “arbitrary” mark. The word used as the mark has a meaning that is not related to the goods or services. Marks such as Apple for computers, Comet for kitchen cleaner, or Lotus for software do not present a logical relationship to the goods.
- Next, and a more common category for marks, is the “suggestive” trademark. They suggest some type of association with the underlying goods or services. While they are not descriptive, they require some imagination, thought or perception to arrive at the goods or services. One example is greyhound for bus transportation. Greyhounds are fast dogs, and through association, the Greyhound bus is a fast form of transportation. Another example is Visa for credit card services. When you travel you need a visa, and by association, you take your Visa card with you when you travel abroad.
- The most common marks used are “descriptive” trademark since they require little thought by the consumer to determine what goods or services are associated with it. These trademarks describe the ingredients, qualities, features, purpose or characteristics of the products or services. A descriptive mark must acquire distinctiveness, meaning the marks have gained some form of recognition in association with their products or services. This is also called “secondary meaning”. While the first three categories are automatically distinctive, a descriptive mark must be proven to be distinctive before it is afforded any trademark protection. The mark Worldbook, for instance, is descriptive for encyclopedias. Some descriptive marks, however, that have acquired distinctiveness include Sharp for televisions and Windows for software with window-like screens.
