Trademark a New Thing?

Every now and then, I have a client who invents something so new, and so unique, that there is no name for it, which forces the client to invent the name as well. Whenever this happens, the next question is almost invariably, “Can I trademark the name?”

And the answer is, not unless we plan this out in advance.

Why? Because we must offer the consumers of the world some sort of ability to refer to the product in a generic way. For example, we must be able to use the word “scissors” to describe “scissors.”

So what do you do in this situation?

You come up with two names. The first will be your generic name, the one we use to describe what the product is, say, in a patent application. Like the word “scissors.” And the second will be your brand name, like “Snippy-Doo-Deluxe” to distinguish your product from other brands of scissors out there.