Trademark Name Naming: How to Enhance Trademark Significance
The Importance of Trademark Significance
Trademark distinctiveness refers to the ability of a trademark to indicate and distinguish the goods or services of different businesses. This is critical to successful branding as it helps consumers to recognize and remember the brand.
Significance Strength Theory
The theory is rooted in the United States and categorizes the strength of trademark distinctiveness into the following five types:
- Generic
- special feature: Direct use of names of goods or services or industry-related terms.
- Registrability: Unregistrable because it is not possible to distinguish the source of goods or services.
- Descriptive
- special feature: Describe the functions, characteristics, ingredients, etc. of goods or services.
- Registrability: Generally unregistrable unless it has a "secondary meaning", i.e., uniqueness acquired through use and promotion over a long period of time.
- Suggestive
- special feature: A characteristic of a product or service that is implied but not directly described, requiring the consumer's imagination to recognize it.
- typical exampleThe company's main products are: Mustang, a car brand, and Red Bull, a functional drink.
- Arbitrary
- special feature: A common term that does not relate to the specified goods or services.
- typical example: "Apple" brand (for electronic products).
- Unique (Fanciful)
- special feature: a completely new word without any original meaning.
- typical example: Kodak.
Trademark Naming Suggestion
When naming a trademark, it is important to refer to the type of prominence and choose a name that reflects the direction of brand development and has strong distinctiveness, which helps to enhance brand recognition and legal protection.
Hopefully this information will help you make a more informed choice when naming your trademark.