What Is a Generic Brand?
For trademark purposes, distinguish terms that identify the source of goods or services from terms that name the goods or services themselves. A trademark identifies a source. A generic term names a category of goods or services.
What Is a Generic Term?
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office defines a generic term as the common, everyday name for goods or services. Because people use these terms to name the goods or services themselves, generic terms do not indicate a source.
- Bicycle for bicycles
- Bagel shop for bagel-shop services
- E-ticket for computerized reservation and ticketing of transportation services
Context matters. The USPTO explains that apple could not be registered as a trademark for the apples an orchard grows, but Apple is a registered trademark for computers. The word is the same, but its relationship to the goods is different.
How Generic Terms Differ From Other Terms
The USPTO distinguishes generic terms from descriptive and suggestive terms. A descriptive term immediately describes an aspect of goods or services without identifying or distinguishing their source. The USPTO gives creamy for yogurt and apple pie for potpourri as examples. Descriptive terms are registrable only in certain circumstances, such as when a trademark gains distinctiveness through extensive use in commerce over many years.
Suggestive terms, by contrast, allude to a quality of goods or services rather than stating that quality outright. The USPTO contrasts bronzer for suntan oil, which it describes as descriptive, with Coppertone for sun-tanning products, which it identifies as suggestive.
Why This Matters
Generic terms cannot function as trademarks because they do not identify a source. The USPTO says generic terms are not federally registrable.
Source: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office: Strong trademarks.
