The term trademark implies certain symbols or words that differentiate the products of one company from the other. The basic objective of trademarks is to ensure that people can buy the correct products without being influenced by the spurious or counterfeited ones.
One of the key requirements for a trademark is that it should be distinctive, which means it must be unique and recognizable. The distinctiveness of a trademark can be judged on the basis of its slotting into one of the trademark categories - descriptive, arbitrary, suggestive, and generic.
A descriptive mark uses a particular feature or quality of a commodity to differentiate it from other products of its kind. 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 usual case as descriptive marks are rarely exclusive.
Suggestive marks are pointers to a certain product aspect or quality. However, consumers might need to use their imagination to figure out the real relationship between the commodity and the mark as there is no obvious connection between the two. For instance, footwear named 'Hush Puppies' are indicative of cosy shoes, which ensure that your feet do not develop sores. The creative reason behind the brand name is that sore feet are known as 'barking dogs' in some states in the US.
Arbitrary marks on the contrary have no relationship whatsoever with the nature or quality of the item. For instance, the use of the mark 'Apple' for computers is entirely disconnected from the product it signifies. Fanciful marks are those that are not used in current languages and have come from the imagination of the manufacturer, such as 'Exxon'.
The final category of generic marks clearly identifies the goods, like 'sports wear', and they cannot be granted any trademark security due to their vagueness.
One of the key requirements for a trademark is that it should be distinctive, which means it must be unique and recognizable. The distinctiveness of a trademark can be judged on the basis of its slotting into one of the trademark categories - descriptive, arbitrary, suggestive, and generic.
A descriptive mark uses a particular feature or quality of a commodity to differentiate it from other products of its kind. 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 usual case as descriptive marks are rarely exclusive.
Suggestive marks are pointers to a certain product aspect or quality. However, consumers might need to use their imagination to figure out the real relationship between the commodity and the mark as there is no obvious connection between the two. For instance, footwear named 'Hush Puppies' are indicative of cosy shoes, which ensure that your feet do not develop sores. The creative reason behind the brand name is that sore feet are known as 'barking dogs' in some states in the US.
Arbitrary marks on the contrary have no relationship whatsoever with the nature or quality of the item. For instance, the use of the mark 'Apple' for computers is entirely disconnected from the product it signifies. Fanciful marks are those that are not used in current languages and have come from the imagination of the manufacturer, such as 'Exxon'.
The final category of generic marks clearly identifies the goods, like 'sports wear', and they cannot be granted any trademark security due to their vagueness.
About the Author:
Discover more about Trademarks and learn how does an Patents protection increase the net worth of your business very fast. You can get a unique content version of this article from the Uber Article Directory.
