Airsoft Team of Lingayen

Trademark protection is granted for words, logos and images that identify products of one firm as distinct from others. The prime function of trademarks is to prevent the customers from getting confused about the source of a product that they plan to purchase.

One of the key requirements for a trademark is that it should be distinctive, which means it should be unique and recognizable. The distinctiveness of a trademark can be determined on the basis of its placement in one of the trademark categories - descriptive, fanciful, suggestive, and generic.

A descriptive mark is one that describes a product with respect to its quality or features like odour, function, dimensions etc. Unlike other marks that are exclusive to a particular commodity, a descriptive mark is not unique and can not usually be trademarked unless it has acquired a secondary identification and the customers begin linking it exclusively with the product.

Suggestive marks are those which indicate a specific feature of the product. However, customers might have to stretch their imagination to identify the real relationship between the commodity and the mark as there is no obvious link between the two. For example, the product name known as ‘Hush Puppies’ points to a comfortable shoe range that protects your feet from becoming sore. The prime reason behind such a name is that ‘barking dogs’ is slang for sore feet in some places in America.

Fanciful marks on the contrary have no link whatsoever with the any quality or feature of the item. For example, the use of trademark ‘Apple’ with a symbol of a half bitten apple is in no way linked to the computers sold under the mark. Similarly, arbitrary marks are those that come from the creative imagination of certain people or come from old languages like Latin.

The final category of generic marks clearly identifies the goods, like ‘camping gear’, and they cannot be granted any trademark protection due to lack of distinctiveness.

Discover more about Trademarks and learn how does an Patents protection increase the net worth of your business very fast.