Can a person obtain trademark rights on a descriptive mark?
Descriptive marks are those trademarks or service marks that only describe the products or services to which they are applied. Marks that are merely descriptive are not protected or accorded trademark rights. This is because they do not identify and distinguish the source of products or services.
Can descriptive terms be trademarked?
Descriptive marks are a type of trademark that are usually composed of a word or words that merely describe a product or that identify the characteristics of a product and are generally considered weak marks. … Generally, such marks are unlikely to be granted registration or protection under trademark law.
Can a descriptive trademark be registered?
When it comes to choosing a trademark, there are opposing forces at play. On the other hand, your trademark attorney wants a unique trademark or seemingly random, unrelated word that has nothing to do with the product or services. … What to do?
How do you overcome a merely descriptive trademark?
If your trademark is clearly descriptive of your products/services such that presenting evidence and arguments will likely be unsuccessful, you can instead overcome the merely descriptive trademark refusal by amending your application to seek registration of your mark on the Supplemental Register.
What are descriptive marks examples?
Descriptive Marks.
In general, a descriptive mark is a word (or words) that merely describes a product or its ingredient, quality, characteristic, function, feature, purpose or use. An example of a merely descriptive mark would be COLD AND CREAMY for ice cream.
Is Coca Cola a suggestive trademark?
In 2005, Coke filed a U.S. trademark registration for the mark “zero” in connection with their popular “Coca-Cola Zero ” soda brand, which Dr. … Arbitrary or fanciful marks , like “Kodak,” can be immediately registered with the trademark office, as can marks that are merely suggestive of their source.
What are the 4 types of trademarks?
Trademarks can generally be categorized into one of four categories of distinctiveness, from most to least distinctive: coined, arbitrary, suggestive and descriptive. Words and designs that lack any distinctiveness fall into a fifth category, “generic,” and cannot function as trademarks.
What is the difference between copyright and trademark?
Copyright protects original work, whereas a trademark protects items that distinguish or identify a particular business from another. Copyright is generated automatically upon the creation of original work, whereas a trademark is established through common use of a mark in the course of business.
Is surnames alone can be trademarked?
Trademark law is intended to protect the owner’s original work. To qualify for federal protection, a mark must be distinctive and have a “secondary meaning.” Surnames alone can be trademarked.
What is descriptive mark in trademark?
Effectively, if the trademark contains or describes the characteristics or features which directly identify or specify the products or services enlisted under the mark then it is considered to be a descriptive mark.
What marks can be registered?
What Trade marks may be registered in India?
- Names.
- Invented / Coined Words.
- Numerals.
- Letters.
- Devices.
- Slogans.
- Signature.
- 3D Mark.
What makes a trademark generic?
A trademark can become “genericized” if the mark becomes identified with a type of product or service in the public’s mind, rather than a particular brand. Aspirin, yo-yos, and cellophane became generic through consumer misuse of the trademarks to refer to these products.
Why do Trademarks get denied?
Likelihood of confusion is the most common reason an application will be rejected by the USPTO. Essentially, if there is a high probability that the general public will confuse your trademark with someone else’s (already existing) trademark, your registration will not be granted.
How do you overcome a merely descriptive refusal?
Top 4 Ways to Overcome a Descriptiveness Refusal
- Argue the mark is suggestive. It can be effective to argue that the mark does not directly describe the goods, but consumers would instead have to guess or infer the intended connected meaning. …
- Argue the term has other more relevant meanings. …
- Expert Affidavit. …
- Disclaimer.
How do you overcome descriptive refusal?
To overcome a §2(e)(1) refusal (i.e., a descriptiveness refusal), a trademark applicant can either (1) submit arguments and evidence to show that the mark is distinct, (2) amend the application to seek registration on the Supplemental Register, or (3) demonstrate that the mark has acquired distinctiveness.