trademark

Pluraltrademarks

Formstrademarks, trademarking, trademarked

1. 1
   nouncountable

   A word, symbol, or phrase that identifies a particular company's product and distinguishes it from other companies' products.

   The swoosh became one of the most recognizable trademarks in sports apparel.

   Shoppers often choose a product because they trust the trademark on the label.

   Similarbrand, logo, emblem

   Note

   Built plainly from trade and mark: the mark a trader puts on goods so buyers know whose they are. Its useful opposites are a generic name, the ordinary word anyone may use for the thing, and a description, which says what a product is rather than whose it is. A trademark has to point to one source, and a word that merely describes cannot do that work.

2. 2
   nouncountable

   The feature for which a person or thing is best known; a hallmark or typical characteristic.

   Razor-sharp one-liners became the late-night host's trademark.

   Long lines and unforgettable noodles are the tiny restaurant's trademark.

   Similarhallmark, signature, characteristic, trait

3. 3
   nouncountable

   A word, symbol, or phrase identifying a company's product that is registered with a government agency, giving it legal protection against use by other companies.

   After the trademark was approved, the brand began adding the ® symbol to its packaging.

   The two companies spent years in court fighting over who owned the registered trademark.

   Note

   Registration is what turns a mark into property the law will defend. On packaging the difference shows in a symbol: ® is reserved for a mark a government agency has registered, while ™ only announces a claim. In everyday talk this legal sense and the general sense blur together, so writers who mean the protected kind usually say so outright: a registered trademark.

4. 4
   adjectivecolloquial

   Distinctive and characteristic of a particular person or thing; signature.

   The chef finished the dish with his trademark drizzle of olive oil.

   She answered the reporters' questions with trademark calm.

   Similarsignature, characteristic, distinctive, typical

   Oppositeuncharacteristic, atypical

   Note

   The hallmark noun placed in front of another noun: a trademark laugh, a trademark free-kick, a trademark navy suit. It cannot be compared, since nothing is more trademark than something else. It usually travels with a possessive that names the owner of the habit, as in "that trademark laugh of his" or "his trademark navy suit."

5. 5
   verbtransitive

   To register something, such as a name or logo, as a trademark.

   Startups often trademark their names before announcing a product.

   The studio trademarked the character's name to stop knockoff toys.

   Similarregister

   Note

   Common in business talk, the verb is nonetheless objected to as incorrect, so formal and legal writing tends to prefer the longer register as a trademark. It is transitive and takes the name or logo as its object: they trademarked the slogan. The past form is trademarked and the present participle is trademarking.

6. 6
   nouncountable

   Any proprietary name for a business, product, or service.

   Aspirin began as a trademark before becoming a generic word in the United States.

   Companies police their trademarks to keep names like 'Velcro' from becoming generic.

   Similarbrand

   Note

   The loosest use of the word covers any proprietary name, whether registered or not. It has its own fixed formula in legal notices, where a company names its property: "Google is a trademark of Google Corporation," as Kai A. Olsen's The Internet, the Web, and eBusiness (2005) puts it. The pairing "trademarks or registered trademarks" in such notices is a hedge that covers every name at once.

7. 7
   verbtransitive

   To mark or label a product with a trademark.

   The distillery trademarks each barrel with a burned-in emblem.

   Manufacturers trademark their goods so retailers can verify the source.

   Similarbrand, stamp, mark, label

   Note

   The objection to the registering verb applies here as well, and the safer wording is simply to mark or label goods with a trademark. The two verbs share every form, so trademarked goods can mean goods that bear a mark or goods whose mark is registered. When the difference matters, branded or labeled settles the physical meaning.

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