Trademark safety is granted for words, logos and images that identify products of one company as distinct from others. The main objective of trademarks is to make sure that the customers are not under any confusion in relation to the origin of the product.
One of the critical needs for a trademark is that it needs to be distinctly identifiable and different from other marks existing in the market. The uniqueness of a trademark can be judged on the basis of its placement in one of the trademark categories – descriptive, arbitrary, suggestive, and generic.
A descriptive mark is one that describes a product with respect to its quality or features like odour, functionality, form etc. Although a few descriptive marks that have taken a secondary meaning in the market, which the consumers can identify as coming from a specific manufacturer, can be trademarked, this is not the general case as descriptive marks are rarely unique.
Suggestive marks are those which indicate a particular quality of the product. However, it is often the case that the mark and the product do not show any obvious relation and the customers might have to identify the connection between the two. For example, ‘Hush Puppies’ is a famous brand name that sells footwear products that guarantee comfort and protect your feet from becoming sore. The interesting part is that ‘barking dogs’ is a slang for sore feet in some places, particularly in America.
On the other hand, arbitrary marks are those that are not linked to the product. For instance, there is no justifiable connection between the logo of a half bitten apple and the product name ‘Apple’ to the renowned computer manufacturer. Similarly, there is no link between the fanciful name Exxon and the products sold under the trademark as the name is a fruit of the creative mind of the marketing agents of the company.
Lastly generic marks are the ones that represent a general category of the item such as ‘olive oil’, and they cannot be granted any protection under trademark laws.
Discover more about Trademarks and learn how does an Patents protection increase the net worth of your business very fast.
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