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Generic Trademarks


You have indicated that your proposed trademark is generic. Unfortunately, the United States Patent and Trademark Office will not register a generic trademark. It would be unfair to your competitors to pull from the public domain words and phrases necessary for competitors to identify similar goods or services.

Does this mean you cannot use your proposed generic trademark? Not at all! You certainly may start or continue using your proposed mark but it is not, nor will it be, a trademark in the legal sense. Because your mark is a generic one, you will not be able to protect it or prevent others from using the same or similar marks to identify goods or services.

Your Options :

Begin or continue using the generic mark, but again, you will not gain trademark rights that will enable you to stop others from using the same or similar mark

Select a new mark that is capable of gaining trademark protection. If you have not already expended substantial resources in creating a brand, selecting a different mark makes sense. That way you can spend money and effort building a brand and a trademark over which you will have ownership and control.

Find out more about our Trademark package services