How to name a brand

The success in the market of the product itself sometimes depends on how well the name is assigned to the trademark. The competent choice of such a name is a relatively difficult legal and psychological task.

Instruction manual

1

Trademarks and service marks are registered in the so-called classes corresponding to the varieties of goods and services rendered. Remember that a mark cannot be registered in one or another class if another mark with the same or similar name was previously registered in the same class. The following example is indicative: the developers of the ICQ program, deciding to name their company by any woman’s name, searched the Internet for other companies with names representing various female names. There was not a single company in the world called Mirabilis, and they had to name their company that way. Do not repeat their two mistakes. Firstly, the search must be carried out not in conventional search engines, but on the website of an organization engaged in the registration of trademarks and service marks. Secondly, they did not know that a sign with the same name (but with a different graphic style) could still be registered if the existing and new signs would then be in different classes. In addition, if the product or service is not intended to be exported, it is enough that a similar mark is not registered at least in the country of origin.

2

If you still intend to export a product or service, find out if you will not have to rename the exported item in some markets. Perhaps, in at least one of the countries, someone registered a similar sign in the same class earlier. For this reason, Sega supplied its game consoles in the United States under the name Genesis, rather than Mega Drive, as in all other countries of the world. Try now to independently answer the question why Siemens does not supply its wired telephone sets under the name Euroset to Russia at all (and Gigaset supplies wireless brands).

3

Read the requirements for trademarks and service marks in the articles of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation under the numbers 1345-1407. In particular, it is not possible to register marks representing the generally accepted name of a product or service, and also to include information in the mark by which you can guess the purpose of the object. So, for the first reason, in the mid-nineties, the Pager trademark was refused registration, and for the second reason, the registration of the Fornos trademark was at one time threatened.

4

Finally, do not forget about the psychological aspect. The name of the trademark should be harmonious, attractive. When exporting a product or service, take into account the particularities of the language of the country to which they are exported.