Legal Strength of a Trademark Law and Legal Definition
The legal strength of a mark is generally measured by its distinctiveness, not its descriptiveness. Words describing very closely the underlying good or service they represent have strong marketing potential, since such marks immediately communicate to customers what the product actually is or does. Descriptive marks have no legal protection under trademark law. Generally, the more distinctive the mark, the stronger is the legal protection available for that mark, but the less ability the mark has to communicate with the consumer. Distinctive marks are those that are coined or fanciful, or suggesting qualities of the underlying products, without plainly describing them.
