Finding It Difficult To Write Your Paper On Generic Trademark?

A genericized trademark is quite a popular term these days among Marketing and Business students. When a trademark becomes generic, it loses its uniqueness. It loses the special features that made it a trademark in the first place. Industrialists and businessmen try to take every measure that could stop their trademark from being genericized. 

From Google to Tabloid, most of the brands have been subjected to trademark genericization. A brand name or trademark is something extremely important to businesses all over the world. A trademark can trigger everything about your business in the minds of your target audience.

But, a generic trademark can put all your effort and dreams at stake. It makes your trademark nothing more than a random word used by people worldwide. So, what’s the hype about generic trademark? Let’s find out.

How Does A Trademark Become Generic?

Generic trademarks describe a product in a way that no one can register them as trademarks. These marks are not protected and are generated against the trademark holder’s intentions. If the brand name becomes highly popular or significant, it can become the generic name under the general category of specific products or services.

It’s almost like calling a brand ‘shoes’ just because they produce shoes. The trademark might begin as a distinctive product identifier. But, the changes in the meaning of the trademark leads to a generic trademark. The main meaning of the product or service becomes the product itself without identifying the source of the product.

Some countries such as the United States and the UK puts the legal protection of trademarks at risk due to the concept of generic trademarks. The specific meaning of your trademark might be lost, giving the competitors a chance to use similar trademarks to describe their products or services.

How Does Generic Trademarks Work?

No matter how strong your trademarks are, they can become generic with the passage of time and lose their value as trademarks. This primarily happens when a trademark is used to refer to a certain product. But, with time it is used to describe a whole group of products. This is a sign of doom for the trademarks.

Once this happens, it is very difficult to keep that trademark for any niche of business. In simple words, if a trademark is overused on a daily basis among the population, it becomes generic.

While considering a trademark, the United States Patent and Trademark Office identifies its uniqueness on a scale.  The scale ranges from strong to weak. The terms that are used to measure the weight of your trademark is as follows:

• Suggestive: It means your trademark is significant but suggests the nature of the product to some extent.
• Fanciful: It means that your trademark is pretty original and has little reference to the nature of service or product.
• Descriptive: It does not suggest the nature of your product. But, it describes the entire product clearly.
• Merely descriptive: It means your trademark has a complete reference to the nature of your product or service.

Your trademark becomes generic when it falls under the ‘merely descriptive’category. After that, the trademark can be used to describe similar products or services or can even compete with the original product trademarked. Hence, the trademark does not describe the specific product or service. Rather, it describes an entire class of similar products or services.

Take the example of cellophane. It was created by Jacques E. Brandenberger and in the year 1912. On 1923, DuPont chemists brought forth a moisture-proof system for cellophane and since then it became genericized. Some countries may still consider it to be a trademark. But, it is a generic word for plastics in most countries. 

The major reason for this is the word ‘cellophane’ became so popular that people stopped recognizing it as a trademark. It just refers to other products that fall within the same category.

How Is A Brand Different From A Trademark?

A brand represents your business and reputation in the eyes of the public. The trademark protects multiple aspects of your brand legally to enhance the image of your company.

Since a generic trademark is quite a popular assignment topic for Marketing students, it is crucial to know the differences between brand and trademark. Several students lose valuable marks because they aren’t clear on this concept and end up writing the points that are not required in the paper.

Your brand is something that your target audience sees and thinks about your company. It is basically your image. The trademark identifies your brand or company.

Remember that all trademarks are brands. But, all brands aren't trademarked.

Sounds confusing? Let’s clear the air about the differences between these two.

Consider the example of Great House which could be a brand but not a trademark. It is because the word is pretty descriptive and not inherently distinctive.

The fact is that ‘brand’ is just a layman’s term used by producers to help the target audience identify its products. The trademark can be a brand only if it’s distinctive enough.

The difference between a brand and trademark can further be classified under several categories. For instance,

• Goal

The goal of a brand name is to help people remember the names and identify your products or services. For instance, you may have noticed that shoppers prefer buying brand name products rather than generic name products due to the perceived value of ‘brands’.

Trademark, on the other hand, provides legal protection of the brand name. If you get your trademark registered, you are free to use legal action against those who try to copy your brand name illegally.

• Registration process

You can register your brand name as trade names at the state and local levels. Businesses that are structured as corporations, limited liability companies and partnerships can register their brand names with the state. You can submit a doing-business-as statement with your city or country to let the local people know about your business.

You can get your trademark registered by the US Patent and Trademark Office. You need to submit a sample of your brand name, fee and an application. It is quite a long process and involves quite a lot of legal implications. Thus, it is always better to take help of an intellectual lawyer.

• Eligibility for use

If your brand name is not registered, anyone else can use it and you will have nothing to do about it. Limitations or rules can only be used if your brand name is registered.

People cannot use the trademarked names except in the cases of ‘fair use.’ In this case, one can use the name as long as it isn’t confused with the ownership of the name. Take the example of ‘Xerox’ here. These days, Xerox is commonly used to mean ‘copy’. But, Xerox is itself a brand that produces printers all over the world.

• Span of use

Speaking of brand names, there are no limitations for the length of use. However, some restrictions may be regulated at the local level. Say you have the same business and brand name. But, your business isn’t registered with the state. In that case, your brand name will be available for use by someone else.

Trademark protection is however restricted to 10 years. You can renew it between the fifth and sixth year after the registration and within the year before the 10-year period ends. At the end of 6th or 10th year, you can still maintain the trademark registration for an additional fee for a 6th month grace period.

The moment something becomes associated with your brand, the role of trademark protection comes into play. There are two different kinds of trademarks available: basic and registered. You can place the ™ placeholder after your product to trademark your brand. This provides your business with some sort of legal protection and people won’t try to steal, confuse or misuse your brand.

The uniqueness of your brand remains intact due to legal protection. This is quite a matter of concern for industrialists or businessmen who want to establish their own position in the market. Also, Business or Marketing students too should be well-familiar with the difference between the two.

Some Common Trademark Product Examples That Are Used As Common Words

Every day we use such words that are actually trademarked brand names. But, due to their similarity with the nature of products and services, people have started using it as generic names. The businesses are registered and hence cannot be used by their competitors. Check out the list of trademarked brands that we use as general words on a daily basis. 

AspirinHere's a list of former trademarks that are now used as generic terms only due to common use. Most of these trademarks have lost legal protection too.

• Cellophane
• Cat’s eye
• Escalator
• Dry Ice
• Kerosene
• Heroin
• Laundromat
• Sellotape
• Trampoline
• Thermos
• Video Tape

This was a list of former trademarks that are now generic terms due to multiple reasons. Check out the list of former trademarks that are now used as generic terms. The reasons include abandonment, improper issuance and non-renewal. Some still retain their legal protection in some countries while most of them don’t.

• App
• App-store
• Yo-yo
• Zipper

You can always prevent your trademark from becoming generic by being a little extra careful while choosing your trademark name. You can add the word ‘brand’ after your trademark on the product packaging. Also, add a descriptor after the trademark. This makes it clear that your brand name is protected and should not be used as the generic name for the product.

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