Descriptive mark

If the name tells consumers what the product is or does - Creamy Yogurt for yogurt - it is descriptive and generally cannot register on the Principal Register without proof of acquired distinctiveness. Descriptive names are easy to market and hard to own.

The most common reason a founder in love with their name hits a wall. A descriptive name tells the customer exactly what you do, which is excellent marketing and poor ownership: the law will not let one business take a word every competitor needs to describe the same thing.

1. Ask whether the name tells a customer what the product is or does, or a quality it has. If so it is probably descriptive.
2. Check whether it is merely suggestive instead - requiring a small mental step is usually enough to save it.
3. If it is descriptive and you are early, change it. This is the cheapest moment you will ever have.
4. If you are committed, plan for the Supplemental Register now and the Principal Register at five years.

A direct-to-consumer brand launches under a name that states its main ingredient and its benefit. It is refused as descriptive. The business is fine, the marketing works - but the name cannot be owned, and a competitor launches under something nearly identical within a year.