Trademark Dictionary
Acquired distinctiveness, also known as secondary meaning, is a concept in trademark law that refers to a situation where a descriptive or generic term has become distinctive and has acquired a secondary meaning in the minds of consumers, through long and continuous use in connection with a particular product or service.
In order to acquire distinctiveness, a trademark owner must show that the mark has become well-known and associated with their goods or services. This can be demonstrated through evidence such as sales figures, advertising expenditures, consumer surveys, and media coverage.
Candy Crush Saga is one of the classic games for wasting time while at work. Its publisher’s efforts to secure a trademark for “saga” and “candy” have been detrimental to the competitors’ growth, once again proving the effective contribution of trademark registration towards business success.
Social media plays a crucial role in the growth of any brand. If you are starting a business, prepare to leverage social media to at least some extent in the promotion of your company. Whether you make ads to run on Facebook and LinkedIn or define your company’s persona through viral posts and tweets, social media provides unique and valuable opportunities for businesses. It also can be a source of countless trademark infringements that can be detrimental to starting businesses.
Taking a creative spin on an already established and renown brand may seem as a good strategy for devising a name for a startup company but it may backfire. This article summarises one of the contemporary cases in this area, revealing that Airbnb’s trademark protects the company against unexpected threats.
