Introduction to Trademarks

Patent Pending:

Names for new companies and products need to be named carefully. This is an area that is diffucult anyone, and especially so if you don�t know the rules. When selecting a name for a company or a product, you should think about what type of mark you have selected. Not all trademarks are capable of being registered, nor enforced as trademarks. The Patent and Trademark office divides trademarks into 5 categories: generic, descriptive, suggestive, arbitrary, and fanciful. Each category is treated differently.

• Generic marks are marks that merely state what the business is, and they are never registerable.
• Descriptive marks are marks that pretty much describe the business, service, or product.
• Suggestive marks are registerable without proving secondary meaning.
• Arbitrary marks are registerable without showing seconardary meaning, and examples include Apple, Nike, Camel, Shell, Arm and Hammer.
• Fanciful marks are words that are created just for use as a mark, and have no English language usage.

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