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]