Law-Forums.org

[delrico]

Say there was a movie named "Aberration", could they trademark the name and stop my band from using that name? Not that I like the name because I don't, but can you trademark a regular word?

[gervaso81]

Yes!

A trademark is a word, symbol, device or combination that identifies products and services as unique from other similar products and services. In other words, a trademark is a distinguishing mark that one can readily associate to a person or business. One example of a symbol trademark is Nike's swoosh design. We all know that swoosh is identified with Nike. Trademarked words include companies such as Google Gmail™ or Macy's®. Product names are usually trademarked: think Coca-Cola® (its distinctive lettering is also trademarked) or Kleenex®.

Kleenex is a special case, actually. It's a famous example of trademark dilution. Trademark dilution happens when a company doesn't protect its mark by enforcing proper usage and attribution (such as enforcing the usage of the trademark [™] or registered trademark [®] symbol) or when its trademark becomes a generic household name. Usually the problem is a combination of the two.

[gwen]

The first person is wrong, a trademark only applies to similar things, so for instance if "Aberration" was trademarked as a movie name, someone could not name another movie "Aberration" but a band is different than a movie.

Also, aberration is an everyday word, if the first answer is correct then no one could ever use that word again once its been trademarked, so they are obviously wrong.

[erwin]

The first person is wrong, a trademark only applies to similar things, so for instance if "Aberration" was trademarked as a movie name, someone could not name another movie "Aberration" but a band is different than a movie.

Also, aberration is an everyday word, if the first answer is correct then no one could ever use that word again once its been trademarked, so they are obviously wrong.

Titles cannot be copyrighted.

Trademark is a branding process, and any word can be used by a producer or ad agency for that purpose. However, to have standing, the trademark has to be registered.

[ammi]

Avatar is an everyday word.

Yes, the name might be trademarked as a movie.

But there are Yahoo Avatar, Xbox Avatars etc etc, that prove the word, can be used in other areas of life.

[teyrnon72]

Yes, there are millions of "regular words" that are trademarks, but only in certain limited fields of use.

A trademark is, by definition, a word (or other distinctive indicator) that is applied to specific goods or services, in commerce, to show a particular source or quality of those goods or services. Under US laws, the trademark power can be used to prevent OTHERS from later using the same or similar words (or other trademarks) that may create a "likelihood of confusion" as to the source or quality of the goods or services.

For instance, the word "APPLE" is a very valuable trademark for computers and related electronics, but it has no trademark significance in the field of fruit, where it is "just a word". Other types of trademarks are so inherently distinctive that there is no way to avoid some implied affiliation if you were to use their trademark on goods or services that aren't even related. This is called "dilution" and can get you sued.

One of the other answers confuses "genericide" with "dilution". Genericide occurs when a trademark is abused as a verb or noun rather than as a proper adjective, and a court refuses to enforce it. For example, you don't "Xerox" something, you use a "Xerox-brand" copier to copy something. Hundreds of "ordinary words" were once valuable trademarks, including: butterscotch, kerosene, escalator, thermos, heroin, aqua-lung, sheetrock, zipper.