+ RSSDifferent Types Of Trademarks
The term trademark implies certain symbols or texts that differentiate the products of one firm from the other. The main objective of trademarks is to prevent any confusion in the consumers' minds about the source of a product that they intend to buy.
One of the critical needs for a trademark is that it should be distinctly identifiable and different from other marks that are already there in the market. The distinctiveness of a trademark can be determined by placing it in one of the trademark classifications - suggestive, descriptive, fanciful, and generic.
A descriptive mark uses a specific feature or aspect of a commodity to differentiate it from other commodities of its kind. Although some descriptive marks that have taken a secondary meaning in the market, which the customers can identify as originating from a specific source, can be trademarked, this is not the usual case as descriptive marks are hardly ever exclusive.
Suggestive marks, as the name indicates, suggest an essential feature of the good. However, customers might have to stretch their imagination to identify the real relationship between the commodity and the mark as there is no obvious connection between the two. For instance, the product name known as 'Hush Puppies' indicates a comfortable shoe range that protects your feet from becoming sore. The creative reason behind such a name is that sore feet are known as 'barking dogs' in certain American states.
On the other hand, arbitrary marks are those that are in no way related to the product. For instance, the use of trademark 'Apple' with a symbol of a half eaten apple is not at all related to the computers marketed under the mark. Similarly, there is no link between the fanciful name Exxon and the products sold under the trademark as it is a fruit of the creative mind of the marketing agents of the firm.
Finally, generic marks are ones which describe a very broad category of items like 'olive oil' and are granted no safety under the trademark laws.
