DESCRIPTIVE WORD

descriptive  word.Trademarks.  A  term  that  portrays a  general characteristic  or  function  of  a

product  or  service.  •  A  descriptive  word  may  not  be  registered  as  a  trademark  unless  it  has

acquired secondary  meaning in the  minds of consumers  so that it is directly associated with one

brand.   [Cases:   Trade   Regulation      164.   C.J.S.   Trade-Marks,   Trade-Names,   and   Unfair

Competition § 162.]

“A trader cannot appropriate to his exclusive use words or symbols which (in the application

he  is  to  make  of  them)  are  public  property.  The  right  of  all  to  use  descriptive  words  in  their

ordinary and usual meaning must not be restricted. No sign or form of words may be appropriated

as a trade-mark, for use in its  primary  meaning,  which,  from the  nature of the fact conveyed by

that  primary  meaning,  others  may  employ  with  equal  truth,  and  with  equal  right,  for  the  same

purpose.” Harry D. Nims, The Law of Unfair Competition and Trade-Marks 524 (1929). [Blacks Law 8th]