What’s a trademark?
A trademark is a word, symbol, phrase, sound, or combination of these elements used to identify goods or services. As applied to the goods or services it identifies, the mark must be distinctive to qualify as a trademark.
What does being distinctive mean? Common words such as apple, book, and sneaker can serve as trademarks, but only if they are not used generically or descriptively. For instance, if the mark is “apple” and you want to use it to sell apple pies, you will probably be denied trademark registration on the basis that the mark is generic. The same would be true if you wanted to use the mark “sneaker” to sell athletic shoes. A mark is generic if it’s the everyday name of the good or service it identifies. And if you wanted to use the mark “sweet” to sell fruit, you would also likely be refused registration because sweet is descriptive. A mark is descriptive if it immediately conveys in the minds of consumers a type, characteristic, ingredient, or quality of the good or service it identifies. But if you used “sneaker” to sell lemonade, “apple” to sell computers, or “book” to sell blenders, your mark could register because the mark is being used distinctively since sneakers and lemonade, books and blenders, and apple and computers don’t naturally go together or share similar features.
A registered trademark gives its owner the exclusive right throughout the nation to use the mark to identify the products or services associated with it.
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