How to Ensure Your Trademark is Strong or Distinctive?
A trademark is the most significant asset your business can own and this call for the need to create strong trademarks that help your brand distinguish itself from your rivals in the market and resonate instantly with your customers. The strength of a mark is one of the most vital parameters that will directly influence the performance of your trademark in the market. A distinctive trademark is what we usually mean by a string trademark and there are ways to ensure your trademark is distinctive enough to beat your rivals and enjoy legal protection through trademark registration in Dubai, UAE. Trademark agents in Dubai in this article suggest the top ways in which you can ensure your trademark is strong enough.
1. Be as Fanciful as Possible
If you want to know the meaning of a confusing word or term you don’t ‘search on the internet but you ‘Google’ it. Similarly, in the UAE, if you want to sell products or find a property on the internet you will just ‘Dubizzle’. What makes these trademarks so powerful and popular? Because they are fanciful words and doesn’t have any inherent meaning. Fanciful or invented mark is considered as powerful trademarks and it enjoys the broadest range of protection against use by third-party. ROLEX, XEROX are other powerful trademarks are that are just fanciful or invented words. Trademark agents in Dubai highly recommend you to use fanciful names for your trademarks.
2. Embrace the Arbitrary
It is highly likely that the image of an iPhone will pop up in our minds when someone utters the word ‘Apple’ and not the fruit. APPLE, the tech company, used an arbitrary mark and that played a huge role in the success of the brand. An arbitrary mark consists of a word or combination of words that has a meaning in the relevant language but that meaning is unrelated to the product in question. Such trademarks are considered strong marks and are entitled to a broad scope of protection.
3. Don’t Be too Suggestive
People who are aiming for successful trademark registration in Dubai should refrain from filing trademarks that hints or suggests the nature of the product or services without actually describing the product or services. Such trademarks are termed suggestive trademarks and are considered weak trademarks. Suggestive trademarks may tempt you with their inherent sales appeal. Further, you are not required to educate the consumers about the nature of the product. However, suggestive trademarks enjoy less scope of protection and are vulnerable to third-party use. The name NETFLIX for streaming services is a familiar example of a suggestive trademark.
4. Say No to Generic Marks
Your aim is to create a unique and distinctive trademark for your brand and successfully register it in the UAE. And generic trademarks won’t help you achieve that objective as they offer less protection and are easy to infringe. The name ‘Clock’ for a timepiece is considered as a generic trademark and there other examples like Green, Indian, Premium, etc. Using such generic words for your trademark makes your brand invisible in a crowd of other string trademarks. If you use generic words for your trademarks, the customers will view it as just common nouns or terms. Be creative and come up with unique names to successfully perform trademark registration in Dubai for your brands.
5. Don’t Be Descriptive
Descriptive trademarks are generally considered as not eligible for registration and enjoy less scope of protection. Descriptive trademarks are generally words that describe the features, quality, attributes, or end result of the products to be registered. You are unlikely to get trademark registration in Dubai if you are filing an application for ‘Cold and Creamy’ for your ice cream product. This is because cold and creamy directly describes the qualities of the product in question.
Seek Assistance of Trademark Agents in Dubai
Trademarks are often rated on the basis of their ‘strength’ or distinctiveness as distinctiveness makes the trademarks less vulnerable to use by third-party. If you view trademarks through a spectrum of ‘strength’ all the marks sit somewhere between extremely weak or exceptionally strong. Brands that have high business aspirations often put money and resources to come up with a highly creative trademark that qualifies as exceptionally strong, just like APPLE, GOOGLE, DUBIZZLE, etc.
Deciding on the strength of a trademark can be tough for most brand owners especially SMEs and startups. However, availing the services of a renowned IP service company like Jitendra Intellectual Property (JIP) is a good alternative for such situations. Brand owners get access to the services of the best trademark agents in Dubai once they dial up the JIP office. Our trademark agents are highly qualified in the UAE Trademark Law and the IP laws in other GCC countries. JIP ensures that your trademarks are strong enough and enjoy protection across the UAE and other countries including Bahrain, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, etc.