What makes a brand eligible to be registered as a trademark?

A brand is eligible for trademark registration if the mark is distinctive in nature and does not conflict with any earlier registered trademark.

Distinctiveness is a spectrum ranging from invented or arbitrary marks all the way to generic industry terms. Invented or arbitrary marks (words with no connection to the goods, such as "Xerox" for printers) are the strongest. Suggestive marks occupy a middle ground; they merely hint at or suggest a product's characteristic or quality. On the other hand, descriptive or generic terms have no inherent distinctiveness and cannot be registered unless the applicant can demonstrate, through evidence of long and extensive use, that consumers have come to associate the term with a single commercial source.

Even a distinctive mark can be refused if an identical or confusingly similar trademark is already registered in the same class. The IP office will assess both the similarity of the marks and the similarity of the goods or services they cover.