Are you starting a dark and unusual boutique? Is your name… “The Goth Shop”? You may want to rethink that.
Trademarks are meant to identify the source of your goods. A generic name like “The Goth Shop,” “Occult Emporium,” or “Curl Up and Die” is just too common to identify a specific source. The law won’t let you lock down a name that many other spooky stores already use.
Those names also suffer from being descriptive. Names that merely describe what you do, what you sell, etc., can’t be protected by trademark law. You aren’t allowed to take common descriptive terms away from everyone else.
Want to build a strong brand? Choose a name that’s arbitrary, fanciful, or suggestive. Think of “The Cure.” Those words have nothing to do with music, so they can be a powerful, protected trademark for a band. Even “Spirit Halloween” is more than just descriptive. It’s the addition of “Spirit” that does that. That’s why they aren’t named “Halloween Emporium.”
Choose a name that’s unforgettable, not just descriptive or common!
Intellectual property is one of the most terrifyingly useful tools you have. If you’re a creator or other entrepreneur ready to build a frighteningly powerful brand and business, you need to know how to use it. You don’t have to face the darkness alone, though.
I help entrepreneurs across the U.S. make smart, legally sound decisions about their intellectual property. I’m an attorney in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, but I serve intellectual property clients nationwide.
If you’d like to consult with me, you can use my contact form or book a consultation online at kingpatentlaw.com or by calling my office at 312-596-2222 or 217-714-8558.
Please check out the other posts and pages on my website for more information on trademarks and other intellectual property and business law issues. I’m also on most major podcast platforms as “Know Your Rights: Your Intellectual Property and Business Law Playbook” (video on YouTube, Spotify, and Substack only) and on most social media as @kingpatentlaw.
