Your trademark is arguably your business’s most valuable asset. A strong trademark differentiates you from competitors and enhances brand recognition, while a weak one can lead to legal battles and marketing challenges. Selecting an effective trademark involves adhering to specific guidelines.
1. **Prioritize Registerable Trademarks:** Avoid investing in trademarks that cannot be registered. Registration protects your brand from infringement, secures your ownership rights, and simplifies enforcement against imitators. Certain types of words are inherently unsuitable for trademarks due to their inability to be registered.
2. **Steer Clear of Descriptive Terms:** Words directly describing the nature or quality of your goods or services are generally not registerable. For instance, “Icy Cold Beer” for a brewery is problematic because it merely describes the product. Registration would unfairly prevent others from accurately describing their own beer.
3. **Avoid Surnames:** Surnames are typically ineligible for trademark protection. “Smith’s Auto Repair,” for example, is a poor choice because “Smith” is a common surname, hindering its distinctiveness.
4. **Prevent Trademark Confusion:** A trademark that closely resembles an existing registered trademark for similar goods or services will likely be rejected. If “AquaShield” is already registered for sunscreen, you cannot register “Aqua-Shield” for a similar product. Always conduct thorough searches of the USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) and CIPO (Canadian Intellectual Property Office) databases.
5. **Minimize Generic Terms:** Aim for trademarks that are unique and distinctive. Avoid generic words such as “best,” “national,” “Deluxe,” “gold,” “premium,” or geographical terms. Incorporating these dilutes your brand and makes it harder to stand out. Generic terms blend you into the background.
6. **Rethink Acronyms and Numbers:** While established acronyms like IBM and CNN are recognizable, their recognition stems from massive marketing investments. Acronyms are less memorable than actual words, especially evocative ones. “RPS Software Solutions” is less catchy than “Crimson Code.” Similarly, numbers are often less memorable and limit your trademark’s distinctiveness. The pool of unused acronyms is shrinking, increasing the risk of confusion.
7. **Embrace Invented Words:** Invented words, or neologisms, are words that exist solely as trademarks. Examples include Xerox, Google and iPad. These are excellent choices because they are inherently non-descriptive and highly distinctive. Create your own by combining parts of existing words (e.g., Veritrak from “verify” and “track”).
8. **Consider Animal or Plant Names:** Animal and plant names can be memorable and create a positive brand image when used appropriately. Examples include Jaguar, Puma, and Cherry Computers.
Prioritize a distinctive first word in your trademark. While descriptive words are often necessary to convey the nature of your business, ensure the initial word is as unique as possible to maximize memorability and brand recognition.