Trademark Registration | Various Kinds Of Trademark Registration In The United States

A Trademark Registration provides legal protection for a design, word, phrase, symbol, logo, or combination of those that represents a source of goods or services. Categories of trademarks for products comprise five main categories: suggestive mark, descriptive mark, generic mark, imaginary, and random mark. 

• Suggestive Mark

A suggestive mark entails something about the goods or service. A mark in this group usually qualifies for protection without necessitating a secondary meaning. The term "suggestive" indicates that the customer must use the thoughts to find out what services or goods the company provides.

• Descriptive mark

A descriptive mark recognizes one or more characteristics of a service or product and only serves to explain the product. It has distinctive elements that meet the criteria it for protection under trademark laws for instance; it must have secondary meaning such as manner and amount of advertising, volume of sales, manner, and length of the mark's use, or results of consumer surveys to be eligible. This means that customers must know the mark and recognize it with the brand. To qualify as a descriptive mark, it should develop from what the brand represents to who the brand represents.

• Generic Mark

A generic trademark does not qualify for a trademark except it includes more definite detail. To qualify a generic mark for a trademark, it needs to explain qualities, ingredients, or characteristics of the good your business sells.

• Fanciful Mark

A fanciful mark is a logo, name, or term that is diverse from anything else that exists. This group is the easiest for getting trademark protection as it typically does not compete with anything else or become too generic.

• Arbitrary Mark

This may include a phrase or term with a well-known meaning, but the meaning in its case is different.

For companies that offer services:

Service Mark: This is same as trademark, but it differentiates a company that offers services rather than products. A service mark falls under the legal trademark laws and should be registered with the USPTO.

An added form of legal protection for differentiating businesses is:

• A trade dress comprises identifying features of a company or product such as décor items, packaging elements, and other similar concepts. Product features do not typically fall under a kind of trademark for legal protection, but rather under trade dress protection. If a consumer recognizes a specific feature or features with a brand or company rather than the actual product, the case for trade dress protection is powerful.

When applying for Trademark Registration Service protection, it is vital to know the differences between each type. If your logo, phrase, symbol, or word is too generic, it will be hard to qualify for legal protection. It may be worthy to think about modifying your mark so that it qualifies more easily.

An Online Trademark Registration enables customers to identify the source of goods or services easily so that there is trademark uniqueness. Before trademark laws became more synchronized, there was puzzlement in the market. Customers could not recognize the provider of services or goods immediately, so it was hard to get brand loyalty.