Legal Definitions - descriptive mark

A descriptive mark is a type of trademark that directly describes a characteristic, quality, purpose, or feature of the goods or services it represents. Unlike marks that are unique or require some thought to connect them to a product, a descriptive mark immediately tells consumers something obvious about what is being sold.

Because these marks use common words to describe products or services, they are generally given less legal protection under trademark law initially. The law aims to prevent one business from monopolizing words that other businesses might reasonably need to use to describe their own similar products. However, a descriptive mark can gain full trademark protection if it acquires "secondary meaning" – meaning that over time, consumers come to associate that descriptive term specifically with a particular company's goods or services, rather than just the general product type.

Here are some examples to illustrate what constitutes a descriptive mark:

• "Speedy Car Wash" for a business that offers quick car washing services.

  This mark is descriptive because "Speedy" directly describes a key feature or benefit of the service – its quickness. Any car wash could potentially claim to be speedy, so allowing one business to exclusively own this term would unfairly prevent competitors from describing their own fast services.

• "Delicious Donuts" for a bakery specializing in donuts.

  This phrase directly describes a quality of the product – its taste. "Delicious" is a common adjective used to describe food, and it would be difficult to grant exclusive rights to one bakery for such a general descriptive term without hindering other bakeries from describing their own tasty products.

• "Online Legal Forms" for a website that provides downloadable legal document templates.

  This mark is highly descriptive as it clearly states both the format ("Online") and the nature of the product ("Legal Forms"). Consumers immediately understand what the service offers without any need for imagination. Competitors in the same market would naturally need to use similar terms to accurately describe their own offerings.