Can you trademark a word

Podcast Creation. Free Strategy Session Scheduler. Client Meeting Scheduler. Podcast Expand menu Hide menu Podcast. Blogs Expand menu Hide menu Blogs. Miller IP Law. Meet Devin. Meet Darrin. What Can Be Trademarked? What can't be trademarked? About the Firm If no company opposes your mark, congratulations!

The process can be complicated. And, given the long waiting periods, a mistake can set you back several months. The video below explains how we can simplify the process by doing the heavy lifting for you:. Morales founded his trademark law practice in January with the goal of providing intellectual property expertise to entrepreneurs and businesses around the country. You can learn more about Xavier here. Can you trademark a common word or phrase? Table of Contents. Add a header to begin generating the table of contents.

Current Example Can you trademark a phrase or common word? Apple One example that I like to give to clients is that of Apple Inc. Past Examples Language is ever evolving, shaped by centuries of iteration, elimination, and re-creation. Kerosene Of the myriad words in our language that used to carry a royalty fee, several were born at the advent of the Industrial Revolution.

Escalator In , Charles Seeberger redesigned a Coney Island novelty ride that transported passengers up a moving staircase. More Examples. Common Word Trademarks: Google. Common Trademarked Words: Q-Tip. Common Word Trademarks: Onesies. Common Word Trademarks: Apple. Common Word Trademarks: Styrofoam. Common Word Trademarks: Superhero. Common Word Trademarks: Rollerblade. Common Word Trademarks: Realtor. Common Word Trademarks: Velcro.

Common Word Trademarks: Vaseline. Common Word Trademarks: Band-Aid. Patent and Trademark Office, or any other federal agency. For other assistance, please see our contact us page.

Trademark, patent, or copyright. Trademark Patent Copyright What's legally protected? A word, phrase, design , or a combination that identifies your goods or services, distinguishes them from the goods or services of others, and indicates the source of your goods or services. Technical inventions , such as chemical compositions like pharmaceutical drugs, mechanical processes like complex machinery, or machine designs that are new, unique, and usable in some type of industry.

By having a federal trademark registration with the government you obtain national trademark protection rather than a state law protection. If you come up with a good catch phrase, you may want to trademark it. It will be the first step to identify your goods and services. Trademark a word if it identifies your brand. You want to protect your brand and set your products apart from competitors' products.

It is your choice if you want to have your trademark protected under trademark law. To obtain a trademark registration you must obtain it from the U. S patent and trademark. USPTO registration isn't required for trademark status. However, a trademark gives you these benefits:. You need to have a strong word for your trademark.

Made-up words and words that aren't directly related to your product are the strongest words to trademark. Consider some word types when creating your trademark:. When you trademark a word, you gain rights over the word. But you can lose the rights if you don't protect your trademark. Trademark protection includes phrases, words, symbols, and sounds.

So you should file a trademark application to protect your services. You should enforce proper capitalization and use of the registered trademark symbol wherever your trademarked word appears. If you don't enforce proper use of your trademark, the word could become a generic name for the product. If a word becomes generic, you can lose the word's trademark. Dumpster is an example of a word that became generic and lost its trademark.