Trademark law protects distinctive trademarks. The distinctiveness of a trademark relates to how readily consumers connect it with the goods it represents. Strong trademarks are distinctive trademarks. The stronger a trademark, the more likely it is to be registered and the more protection it will get from the courts. It’s crucial to know the distinction between inherently powerful trademarks and trademarks that are intrinsically weak. This article will discuss the marks considered strong trademarks and the importance of choosing a strong trademark.
Importance of a Strong Trademark
Maintaining a good trademark requires appropriate trademark use. It would be best to verify that your company is appropriately utilizing the trademark to avoid inadvertently weakening the strength of a good brand.
- High chances of registration
Effective trademarks are more likely to be registered. They are better protected against trademark conflicts or trademarks with a risk of confusion. On the other hand, weak trademarks face much greater competition. It will be simpler for your rivals to use a confusingly similar mark to an invalid brand without infringing the weak trademark.
- Capable of distinguishing goods from others
A strong trademark enables a business to distinguish its products or services from those of other companies.
- Helpful in promoting authenticity
Strong trademarks are more successful in promoting authenticity and expanding product ranges in the company.
Categories of Trademarks
The trademarks are divided into five categories: the most distinctive (strong) and the least distinctive (weak).
1. Coined or Fanciful Trademarks
Coined or fanciful trademarks are words or signs created with no actual significance. Such marks are the result of your imagination. Fanciful trademarks are legally the strongest marks since they are naturally distinctive and have the highest possibility of being registered. At the strongest end of the range is a fantastic or coined mark. Such a mark consists of a collection of characters that have no meaning; it is thus a created term. Examples of internet services include GOOGLE, watch ROLEX and KODAK for the camera. Since a fanciful or coined mark has no inherent meaning, a more significant promotional effort is required at the outset to educate the public about the connection between the created mark and the product or service of the owner. These marks, however, have the broadest extent of protection against use by other parties.
2. Arbitrary Trademarks
Arbitrary trademarks are words or symbols with meaning but have no logical relationship to the advertised goods. While arbitrary trademarks are also powerful and simple to protect, marketing professionals often dislike them as much as fanciful trademarks for the same reason. They may need extensive advertising to establish a link between the trademark and the product in customers’ minds. However, they, like invented or fanciful trademarks, are often registered. Arbitrary marks are highly distinctive in identifying and differentiating goods or services, such as DOVE for soap and APPLE for mobile or iPad.
3. Suggestive Trademarks
Suggestive trademarks suggest the product’s nature, quality, or characteristics without really describing them. To recognize the features, the customer must use some imagination. They have a low degree of distinctiveness, though, since they imply product characteristics. As a result, they are afforded less protection than fanciful or arbitrary trademarks.
A suggestive trademark may be deemed excessively descriptive of the goods in certain countries, and therefore may not be registrable as a trademark. Since they serve as a kind of advertising, suggestive trademarks are appealing to marketers. However, if your mark defines your product or its characteristics, it becomes an issue since you cannot prevent others from using the same terms to describe their rival goods. Trademark AIRBUS for airplanes is an example of suggestive marks.
4. Descriptive Trademarks
Descriptive trademarks define a product, an ingredient, a quality, a characteristic, a function, a feature, a purpose, or a usage. Such as a mark SWEET is likely to be denied as a descriptive trademark for chocolate marketing. A descriptive mark is regarded as the least protectable of all brands unless it is proved that distinctive character has developed over time through extensive use in the marketplace. Naturally, having a trademark that clearly states what you are offering would be beneficial for marketing reasons—for Example, American Airlines for Passenger and freight air transport.
5. Generic Trademarks
A generic trademark does not qualify for trademark protection in any way. It is a word that is used to refer to the specific kind of products or services to which it relates. In essence, trademark law prohibits someone from obtaining exclusive rights to use a word that refers to the nature of the product or service. For example, using the trademark ICE CREAM for ice cream cannot be eligible for trademark protection as it is a generic term. Under some conditions, a word that was not generic initially may become generic when a majority of the relevant consuming public begins to regard it as the product’s name. Aspirin, for example, is no longer considered a trademark, and the public has already started to refer to it as the product’s name.
The purpose of this article is to provide a general overview of the subject. A strong trademark will have a greater chance of obtaining stronger protections. Our trademark experts at Farahat & co. can help and guide the owner in choosing a strong trademark. Our business experts will help you with the choosing of a strong trademark. We also offer trademark search and trademark registration services in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. We can help and support you in properly completing the trademark registration process and achieving a favourable outcome. Kindly contact us; we will happily assist you!
