Back to Trademark basics

Can any mark be registered as a trademark?

Written by Jan Buza

Co-founder of Trama

No. To be eligible for registration, a mark must be distinctive and it must not conflict with an earlier registered trademark.

Marks that are generic, purely descriptive of the goods or services, or too similar to an existing registration will be refused. The purpose of a trademark is to identify a single commercial source, and a mark that fails to do that cannot serve as a trademark and will not be registered.

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