How Trademarks Are Categorized
The term trademark implies certain logos or texts that distinguish the products of one company from the other. The basic aim of trademarks is to ensure that consumers can buy the right products without being influenced by the spurious or counterfeited ones.
One of the critical needs for a trademark is that it needs to be distinctly recognizable and different from other marks that are already there in the market. The distinctiveness of a trademark can be determined on the basis of its slotting into one of the trademark categories – descriptive, arbitrary, generic, and suggestive.
A descriptive mark is representative of the essential quality or some other features of the product like its utility or size. However, marks that are descriptive are not as distinctive as some other marks and therefore, they are not normally capable of being trademarked. however, if the mark has acquired a secondary identification that is more popular among the consumers, it can be successfully trademarked.
Suggestive marks, as is evident by the name, suggest an essential feature of the good. However, the relationship between the name and the good is not obviously evident and it might need a little bit of imagination on the part of the consumers to understand it. For instance, ‘Hush Puppies’ is a popular brand name that sells footwear products that ensure comfort and prevent soreness of your feet. The creative reason behind such a name is that the problem of sore feet is loosely referred to as ‘barking dogs’ in certain American states.
Arbitrary marks are those marks which do not have any link whatsoever with the commodity itself. For instance, there is no real connection between the symbol of a half eaten apple and the product name ‘Apple’ to the renowned computer manufacturer. Similarly, there is no relationship between the fanciful name Exxon and the items sold under the trademark as the name is a fruit of the imagination of the marketing agents of the company.
Lastly generic marks are those that describe a general category of the item like ‘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. Grab a totally unique version of this article from the Uber Article Directory