Hi there. First I want to say that I am glad you are back up. This is such a great resource to everyone trying to launch a product. Thank you
My question is, I think from reading other posts that as an example the word "tissue" can not be trademarked. But I am wondering if the word tissue had a descriptive word included, such as "Blue Tissue". Would we be able to trademark Blue Tissue? This is a pretty good example of what I am trying to trademark. We feel that without the word "tissue" our name loses impact.
Samantha
Hi Sam - in addition to the answers already provided by Jeff & Yak, I'll hit a remaining aspect.
You asked if adding a descriptive word such as "Blue" to a (generic) term such as "tissue" helps you trademark. (By "able to trademark", I take your meaning to be "able to obtain registration of the mark" and/or "able to enforce rights in the mark".)
Unfortunately, adding descriptive terms does
not help. Generally speaking, descriptive terms are hard to register as marks. Consider the policy reasons and it makes sense. Descriptive terms are terms the public uses every day, so one entity should not be able to monopolize use of the terms.
An example: Obviously, "automobile" is generic if you tried to use it as a mark for a car. Right? So, let's beef it up the way our marketing people say to do, and call it the "Shiny Metallic Blue Automobile". Well, I'm still not likely able to get that mark registered, because all I'm doing is using normal public domain descriptors. It wouldn't be fair for me to suddenly begin monopolizing those descriptive words (even that phrase) via TM registration.
Some real world examples include a foods company that fought tooth and nail trying to enforce rights in "Brick Oven Pizza" against a competitor. Last I heard, they were still on the losing end. Because it's just a descriptive statement and lots of people and businesses use (and sell) pizzas cooked in brick ovens
[1]. On the other hand, "Freschetta's Brick Oven Pizza" can be registered, as the entire phrase, because of the whimsical/made up name "Freschetta". But they can only stop people from using the entire phrase - not the "Brick Oven Pizza" part by itself (as Yak explains in his Hairy Booger Tissue example). Another example was an attempt to register the brand "AllJuice" for juices and juice beverages
[1].
[1] Funny aspects of this- Schwans fights hard for its "Brick Oven Pizza" while admitting (in court if I recall correctly) that it does not actually cook its pizzas in brick ovens. Similarly, most of the product sold under the "AllJuice" moniker was juice beverages, i.e., sugar water with 10-20 % juice, not "All" juice at all....
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Topic: Trademark question -- Generic Words (Read 499 times)
