A strong trademark does more than just protect your company’s intellectual property. It grows to symbolize your company in the minds of consumers. That’s why it’s so important to choose a trademark carefully.
A good, strong trademark is distinctive. It clearly and immediately identifies your brand to your customers. A strong trademark should be arbitrary, fanciful, or suggestive. You should avoid descriptive marks or generic terms associated with your products and services.
In fact, you may not even be able to trademark generic and descriptive terms, because other business owners need to be able to use these terms to describe their own products and services. Here’s how to come up with a strong trademark.
Make a List of Possible Trademarks
A trademark can be a word, phrase, design, symbol, or combination of any of the above. It should allow customers to distinguish you from your competitors in the marketplace.
You may already have a trademark for your company in mind. You can register trademarks on an intent-to-use (ITU) basis, but most companies register a trademark after they have already used it in commerce for a period of time, and this is not only expected but encouraged by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). So when listing your possible trademarks, think about things like your logo, your company name, or your slogan.
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Consider the Distinctiveness of Your Possible Trademarks
A trademark should be unique and distinctive. There are five types of trademarks: arbitrary, fanciful, suggestive, descriptive, and generic. However, only three trademark types tend to be inherently distinctive: arbitrary, suggestive, and fanciful. You should strive to make your trademark one of those three.
An arbitrary trademark, for example, is a word that is not intrinsically associated with the products or services. Apple® is an arbitrary trademark because apples have nothing to do with computers. That makes using the word “apple” as a trademark arbitrary and unique. It helps the trademark Apple® maintain its distinctiveness in consumers’ minds and readily identifies the company on the marketplace.
A suggestive trademark is one that suggests the quality of the goods or services without outright naming it. The trademark COPPERTONE® is a successful suggestive trademark – the word suggests the results of an excellent tanning session. Further examples of strong suggestive trademarks include the Nike Swoosh®, which suggests speed, and the Target Bullseye®, which suggests that you’ll find what you need in one of their stores. Fanciful trademarks are words that are completely made up. Think Exxon® or Pepsi®. These words have no other meaning outside their link to the goods and services they represent.
Try to avoid using generic or descriptive terms associated with your products and services. You probably won’t be able to trademark terms like these, anyway. For example, if you sell ice cream, you probably won’t be allowed to register a trademark with generic terms like “ice cream” or descriptive words like “cold” and “creamy”.
The reasoning is that other purveyors of ice cream will need to be able to use these terms to describe their own products and services in the marketplace – and they’re not distinctive enough to readily identify your brand to consumers, anyway. You should also avoid using three-letter acronyms (TLAs). There aren’t many of them left available and they’re not as memorable for customers as you might think.
Avoid Unregistrable Marks
Choose a trademark that is distinctive and easy for consumers to identify with your brand. A corporate logo, slogan, or brand name that you’re already using is perfect for trademark registration. However, you should know that there are some words you simply can’t trademark. These include surnames and marks that are similar to existing marks.
Search for Similar Trademarks in TESS
Once you have narrowed down a distinctive trademark, you’ll need to make sure that no other company is already using it or something similar. This is actually the first step in trademark registration with the USPTO. You can search the Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS) to make sure your new proposed trademark isn’t similar to any already registered trademarks. In addition to searching for your exact mark or words, you should also search for any similar ones. This can be a complex task that might be best left to a trademark attorney.
A strong trademark is essential for growing brand awareness among your customer base and protecting your brand from misuse. Make sure you choose the strongest, most distinctive trademark you can come up with, so that your customers can always choose your products with confidence.
- Startupguys Marketing December 15, 2022