Can a trademark be too broad?
2. Overly Broad Goods and Services Claimed in Trademark Application. Similarly, as an applicant can use too narrow of a description of goods and services, an applicant may try to file for too overly broad of a description. If the goods and services are overly broad, rejection may occur for several reasons.
What is considered a trademark infringement?
Trademark infringement is the unauthorized use of a trademark or service mark on or in connection with goods and/or services in a manner that is likely to cause confusion, deception, or mistake about the source of the goods and/or services.
How specific does a trademark have to be?
In order to serve as a trademark, a mark must be distinctive — that is, it must be capable of identifying the source of a particular good.
What are the five levels of trademarks?
Types of trademarks for products include five main categories: generic mark, descriptive mark, suggestive mark, fanciful, and arbitrary mark. A generic trademark actually doesn’t qualify for a trademark unless it includes more specific detail.
What happens if you use someone else’s trademark?
If you use someone’s trademark without first obtaining express consent or without a legal right to do so pursuant to the fair use doctrine, the trademark owner can sue you for trademark infringement. Trademark infringement damages may include monetary compensation based on loss of profits and economic harm.
Can Trademarks be similar?
If two products are very different, they can be represented by similar trademarks. When it comes to the relatedness of products or services, the more similarities the trademarks have with each other, the less similar the products or services need to be in order to support a discovery of likelihood of confusion.
Is Netflix a suggestive trademark?
A suggestive mark hints at or suggests the nature of a product or service or one of its attributes without actually describing the product or service. Examples of suggestive marks are AIRBUS for airplanes and NETFLIX for streaming services.
What is a strong trademark?
It’s important to have a strong trademark that is inherently distinctive. This means your trademark quickly and clearly identifies you as the source of your goods or services. Strong trademarks are suggestive, fanciful, or arbitrary. Weak trademarks are descriptive or generic.