Trademarks have a specific purpose. They help people identify with a particular product, service, company, or organization. Five types of trademarks exist.

  1. Generic marks: Trademarks to which one attempts to assign secondary meaning, though such attempts will always fail because the marks describe an entire group of products (e.g., aspirin). 
  2. Descriptive marks: Trademarks that take on a secondary meaning (e.g., McDonald’s).
  3. Suggestive marks: Trademarks that suggest a quality or characteristic of the good or service that it represents (e.g., Florida’s Natural branded orange juice).  
  4. Arbitrary marks: Trademarks that tend to describe goods or services that otherwise have no relation (e.g., Apple). These trademarks are generally very strong.
  5. Fanciful marks: Trademarks that tend to describe goods or services and likely have no other precedent in the market (e.g., Allegra). These are typically the strongest trademarks.

As mentioned, typically the strongest trademarks are unique names or words. However, occasionally, a common word can sometimes be trademarked as long as people identify it with a secondary meaning other than its original meaning or the word is used to describe a service or good. For instance, consider Apple. While the original meaning represents the fruit, it has taken on a secondary meaning as representation of the technology company Apple. In fact, when researching the term via Google, the first result that appears is the website for the company Apple.

While Apple has successfully coined a common term with a secondary meaning, this is no easy task. For instance, last year, the Boy Scouts of America (BSA)announced its plans to change its program name from Boy Scouts to Scouts BSA. The change would reflect its modification from an all-boys program to the inclusion of girls into the program. However, the Girl Scouts of the United States of America (GSUSA) objected to the change and sued BSA for trademark infringement. 

Although the two organizations have coexisted for decades without trademark issues, the GSUSA argues that the suggested name change creates confusion. Currently, the terms “girl” and “scouts” used together take on a specific meaning that associates directly with the GSUSA organization. GSUSA contends that BSA cannot have exclusive rights to common terms such as “scouting” and “scouts” in relation to girls. 

When the Boy Scouts was an all-inclusive boys program, there was no question as to whom the organization targeted. However, since the program now includes all genders, it is likely the organization will have to occasionally use the term “girls” and “scouts” to recruit or describe particular aspects of its program. Therefore, it may inadvertently infringe on the GSUSA trademark. In fact, some people have already mistakenly signed up their daughters to the girls’ programs in Boy Scouts, and others believed the two organizations merged.

The BSA argues that it has the rights to use “scouts” when referring to programs associated with boys and girls, and not girls exclusively. It further argues that the GSUSA only has rights to “scouts” when referring to girls.

As you can see, trademarking a common term can be complicated and difficult to implement. It will be interesting to see how this battle is resolved.