What Makes for An Effective Trademark?

If you’re like most business owners, you want to do everything you can to get an edge over your competitors. One of the best ways to do so is through a strong, effective trademark. Your trademark is one thing, among others, that will make your brand distinguishable from others. Please continue reading and speak with a competent New Orleans, Louisiana trademark lawyer to learn more about what makes for an effective trademark.

Qualities of an Effective Trademark

There are several qualities that make for a good, effective trademark. To start, your trademark should be unique, meaning it stands out from the crowd and doesn’t share any similarities to other trademarks in your industry. The reason for this is twofold: first, having a unique trademark will make your brand easily recognizable, and second, it will protect you from a potential trademark infringement lawsuit down the road. If another company, especially a competitor, can prove that your trademark is too close to theirs, it will likely spell legal trouble for you in the future.

Your trademark should also be simple and easy to remember. Some great examples of this are Apple’s® “bite mark” apple logo and McDonald’s® “golden arches.” Whenever you hear the word “Apple®,” or “McDonald’s®,” you likely immediately think of their logo, and vice versa; when you see their logo, even if they don’t have any words present, you immediately know what the logo represents.

Your trademark should also be versatile. If you own a retail store of some kind, for example, that sells a wide range of products, you wouldn’t necessarily want a trademark that only represents one of the many products you sell, as it could potentially mislead or alienate potential customers. That said, your trademark should still be relevant to the services you provide.

The relative strength or weakness of your trademark is an important factor to consider, as it has a direct correlation with the trademark’s performance in the market and the scope of legal protection. Therefore, you should consider the inherent hierarchy of trademark strength. The hierarchal strength of trademarks ranges from strongest to weakest, with fanciful or coined trademarks being the strongest and generic words trademarks being the weakest.

The following is the hierarchal order of trademarks from strongest to weakest:

• Fanciful or Coined Trademarks. A fanciful or coined trademark is the strongest trademark because it is considered to be inherently distinctive. This means that the trademark consists of a word or combination of words that have no known meaning and are invented words. For example, Google® for computer and online services is a fanciful or coined trademark because there was no known definition or meaning for the term before its use as a trademark. Due to the uniqueness of such trademarks, they are granted the broadest scope of legal protection against infringement.
• Arbitrary Trademarks. An arbitrary trademark consists of a word or combination of words that have a common meaning but that meaning is unrelated to the goods or services offered under that trademark. For example, Apple® for computers is an arbitrary trademark because while the word apple was a commonly known name of a type of fruit this known definition had nothing to do with computers until the use of the term as a trademark for computers. Arbitrary trademarks are considered highly distinctive because they give new and unrelated meaning to commonly used words. Due to the high distinctiveness in the identification and distinguishing characteristics of arbitrary trademarks, the scope of legal protection against infringement is very broad for these types of trademarks.
• Suggestive Trademarks. A suggestive trademark, just as the name sounds, suggests or hints at the nature of the product, service, or a feature of the product or service without specifically describing the product or service. For example, Jaguar® for cars is a suggestive trademark because while the word jaguar describes a large cat species, its use relating to cars is suggestive of high speed, beauty, and the purr of a performance car’s engine. Suggestive trademarks are granted a meaningful but less extensive scope of legal protection against infringement because suggestive trademarks are composed of inherent elements of sales appeal and require significantly less education of the public to associate the trademark with the goods or services offered under the trademark than fanciful or arbitrary trademarks.
• Descriptive Trademarks. A descriptive trademark consists of a word or combination of words that merely describe the goods or services offered under the trademark. Typically, descriptive trademarks are not initially protectable as a trademark because they simply describe the quality, characteristic, function, feature, use, or purpose of a good or service. However, a descriptive trademark may later become protectable if it acquires secondary meaning. Such secondary meaning is acquired when the descriptive word or combination of words has been used and advertised exclusively in conjunction with the goods or services offered under the trademark for a sufficient time period, and the public has come to identify the trademark as being associated with a single source of origin for that good or service. For example, SHARP® for televisions has acquired secondary meaning because while the word sharp is descriptive of the quality of the picture of the television product, the company’s extensive marketing and exclusivity of use has resulted in the trademark acquiring secondary meaning, therefore, granting the trademark an amount of distinctiveness that allows for protectability.
• Generic Words Trademarks. A generic word(s) trademark consists of a word or combination of words that the public understands as the commonly used name for the good or service that a generic word(s) trademark would offer. Generic words trademarks can never be registerable or protectable because there is no possibility of exclusive use of such commonly used word(s). For example, the word “watch” for timepieces cannot be used as a trademark because a watch is a commonly used word for a timepiece. In certain circumstances, a trademark that was not initially generic can become generic when a majority of the relevant public begins to generally use the trademark as a name for the product or service. For example, Asprin®, while still a registered trademark in about 80 countries, has been declared generic in the United States because the general public has come to use the word to generally refer to acetylsalicylic acid (NSAID pain relievers) goods.

Therefore, it is very important for you to consider the hierarchy of trademark strength before choosing your trademark. A trademark lawyer can help you determine where your trademark sits on the hierarchal scale.

Should I Hire a Lawyer Before Pursuing a Trademark?

The process of obtaining an effective trademark can be complicated, but with a knowledgeable intellectual property lawyer in your corner, it should actually be relatively straightforward. Your attorney can ensure your trademark is, in fact, original, file paperwork on your behalf, and monitor your field to ensure no one infringes upon your trademark in the future.

If you’re looking to secure legal protection for your trademark, simply contact Lemler IP for guidance today.