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Table of content

• Coined Marks or Fanciful (Strongest)
• Arbitrary(Strong)
• Suggestive (Medium)
• Descriptive (Weak)
• Generic (No Protection)

Push the pause button before committing to a business name or even launching a brand every entrepreneur should follow it.  On the other hand consulting to a trademark attorney is less alluring than the excitement of moving into branding campaigns, logo design and web design.  

A strong trademark will simply not help the goods and services under the belt of your brand to be recognizable but will rescue from the expense and lost time of trademark legal issues. 

Forming a strong brand always begins with a foundation and this name swiftly and clearly recognizes your business as the source of goods and services. The more robust your brand is, easily you can build it by staying away from confusion and surpass the competitors. The other perk of strong trademark is that it will prevent others from using your trademark even if its a similar trademark,

Moving ahead, let's explore five major key considerations for creating a strong trademark. 

Before selecting a brand or a product name it's always wise to take into consideration the strength of the mark. To check what makes a  mark stronger than the other, USPTO analyzes marks on the basis of distinctiveness. Moreover, a trademark is classified into five categories and those play an important role in creating a strong trademark. 

1. Coined Marks or Fanciful (Strongest)-

Such marks comprise words which have no meaning except a brand name. Such as Pepsi® for soft drinks and this type of mark usually receive the broadest scope of protection, the reason behind that is it did not exist until created as the name of service or a product.

2.  Arbitrary(Strong)-

 These include the words which are used in layman terms and on a daily basis, but when utilized in conjunction with a precise product or services they tend to become completely unrelated. For example NIKE for shoes and CAMEL for cigarettes. In case if you are unwilling or unable to curate a new word or brand name, arbitrary marks are best because these are words already in existence but simply not in connection to the products/services that will be or are offering. 

3. Suggestive (Medium)-

 These are types of marks that require imagination and a lot of thought process. These marks are simply suggestive of what is being offered with the mark. Small brands or start-ups should go for such marks because they will have  less significant resources initially and a market support to create awareness for the brand.

Overall, the suggestive mark will not advertise the brand name. It would also offer a hint as to the product/services which are being offered. However, there is a line between descriptive and suggestive marks hence, be careful to haul over this kind of spectrum.

4. Descriptive (Weak)- 

The terms that immediately are described by their characteristics or goods/services. Basically these marks simply convey information and are not distinct. due to which they are not protectable as they do not serve to distinguish from goods/services and merely describe few attributes of the products and services as well.

5. Generic (No Protection)-

 Common or generic  words for a type of product or service -such as watch, credit card, or popcorn) can never be a trademark or service mark for that product or service. Simply the reason is , it defines the source but the word doesn't define the product or service.

As a result it would prevent  others from rightfully using the common name for the product and  service that they build and create.