Distinctiveness

Marks sit on a spectrum: fanciful (invented words), arbitrary (real words unrelated to the product), suggestive, descriptive, then generic. The further toward fanciful, the easier to register and the stronger to enforce. Choosing a strong name at the start avoids most later problems.

This one idea decides how hard your name will be to register and how much it will be worth once you own it. The spectrum runs from invented words at the strong end to the generic name of the product at the other, and the names that are easiest to market are usually the hardest to own.

1. Place your candidate on the spectrum: invented, arbitrary, suggestive, descriptive or generic.
2. If it describes what you sell, expect a refusal and plan for either a different name or years of evidence.
3. Prefer suggestive over descriptive. A name that hints at the benefit is registrable; one that states it usually is not.
4. Decide this before you buy the domain, print the packaging or build the following.

Two founders in the same category pick names on the same day. One picks a word that describes the product; the other picks an invented word. Three years later the first is assembling evidence of acquired distinctiveness and the second has an incontestable registration.