The purpose of a trademark is to protect the uniqueness of a brand and to distinguish it from its competitors. However, using a generic trademark for a brand doesn’t make it stand out from the crowd. Additionally, a business cannot register a generic trademark with the USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) as it describes a product in a common way. For example, a coffee brand named “coffee” or an ice cream brand named “ice cream”. Let us look at generic trademarks and how they affect your business.
Why is a Generic Trademark not the right one for your Business?
The ultimate aim of a trademark is to establish a brand’s individuality and make its customers identify it without any confusion. However, generic trademarks like “Bags” or “Cars”, or adding suffixes to them like “Bags.com” or “Cars.in” is not going to help the brands stand unique among other bags or cars-producing brands. Also, other brands producing the same products can use those names to represent them, right? This is why it is prohibited to register generic trademarks for one’s business.
Process of Genericization
When a brand is established for a very long time and is more common among people, the trademark has the possibility to get genericized or eroded. For example, “Maggi” is a brand that produces instant noodles, but people are now using it as a generic term for referring to noodles. If a trademark is genericized, it can no longer be registered. This is the reason why brands are so cautious in choosing peculiar names for them. Some of the other examples of genericized trademarks are “Xerox”, “Band_Aid”, “Aspirin”, “Hoover”, “JCB” and “Thermos”.
Top Tips to Avoid Genericization
In order to protect your brand from getting genericized and losing its protection, it is essential to follow a few things before trademark registration.
- Avoid using your trademark as a generic term for describing your brand’s products.
- Use the appropriate Trademark symbols TM or Ⓡ while registering your trademarks, and make sure that your trademarks will never be written without those symbols.
- While promoting, don’t try to use your trademark as verbs or plurals. For example, Googling, and Xeroxing are the verbs that come from the brands Google and Xerox.
- Also, try to use “brand” after your trademark or a descriptive phrase.
- Carefully note whether anyone is using your trademark illegally. If you find any, file an infringement lawsuit against them in the initial stage to prevent genericization in the future.
Need help with generic trademarks? Brealant Ltd is there for you!
It is recommended to avoid genericization from the first, by following a few procedures like the above-mentioned. If genericization happens and the owner wishes to remove the registration, he can do that by filing a “Petition to Cancel” with the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board with appropriate proof. To avoid such difficulties, choose a trademark that is less likely to be genericized, and Brealant is here to help you with trademark registration throughout the entire process!
