Your trademark is the most important asset your business will ever have. Good branding will set you apart from the competition and help you stand out from the crowd. A poor trademark will entangle you in legal disputes and hinder your marketing efforts. Selecting a good brand is as simple as following these guidelines.

First of all, avoid Trademarks that cannot be Registered. There is no point in investing in a trademark that you cannot register. Registering your trademark protects you from competitors, guarantees your property rights over the trademark and facilitates the enforcement of your rights against imitators. As you will read below, certain types of words are inherently bad choices as trademarks because they cannot be registered.

Avoid purely descriptive words. The registration of words that describe the nature or quality of the products or services sold under the brand is not permitted. Therefore, the mark “Cold Beer” for use with malt beverages cannot be registered because it describes the actual product being sold. If recorded, it would prevent someone from using the terms Cold and Beer to describe a malt drink.

Avoid last names. Surnames cannot be registered as trademarks. Therefore, the “Wilson Power Boats” brand is a poor choice as a trademark because the word Wilson is a surname (and the rest of the brand is descriptive).

Avoid confusing trademarks. A trademark that is confusingly similar to a trademark cannot be registered. Therefore, the trademark “Sun-Screen” cannot be registered if the trademark “Sun-Screen” has already been registered for a similar type of product. A good idea is to search the US Trademark Database and/or the Canadian Trademark Database.

Avoid generic words in a trademark. The goal is to select a brand that is as unique and distinctive as possible; therefore, avoid generic words. Examples of generic words include “green, premium, American, Canadian, luxury, gold, economy, premium” and many others. If you incorporate generic words in your trademark, you will blend in with the crowd, not stand out from it. Geographical words fall into this category.

Avoid TLAs (three-letter acronyms) and numbers. IBM, CNN, and ATT are distinctive trademarks because their respective owners spent tens of millions of dollars to make the marks famous. Even a poor brand can become famous if you spend enough money on it. But acronyms are inherently difficult to remember, while words, especially colorful words, are easily remembered. Therefore, “ELS System Solutions” is not as memorable as “Volcanic Silicon”. Similarly, avoid using numbers in a trademark, as they tend to be less memorable. Also, there are a limited number of unused acronyms available, so there is an excellent chance that your TLA will be confused with another.

Use made up words. Invented words are words that do not exist in any language apart from their trademark. Examples include SPANDEX, EXXON, KODAK, VIAGRA, and several other famous brand names. Made up words are a good choice because they tend to be quite distinctive. You can create a made-up word simply by combining parts of other words. For example, MICROSOFT is a combination of “Microcomputer” and “software.”

Try animal or plant names. Animal and plant names tend to be quite memorable and, if used correctly, can convey a good image while remaining distinctive. APPLE COMPUTERS, TIGER DIRECT and Ford MUSTANG are good examples.

Finally, make sure the first word of your brand is as distinctive as possible. It is often necessary to add descriptive words to the trademark to convey what is being sold or marketed in association with the trademark. If generic words are to be included, then it is vital that the first word of the brand is as distinctive as possible.