The trademark spectrum divides brand names into 5 levels from Generic to Fanciful, based on distinctiveness and legal protection. Names at the lower levels (Generic, Descriptive) are often not registrable or have weak protection, making them easy to copy. For most businesses, the Suggestive level is the best choice: it suggests the industry, is registrable, and builds unique value.
In this article · 6 sections
Every week, many business owners discover that the name they have used for years cannot be registered for trademark protection. That name has been printed on packaging, registered as a domain, and even designed into an elaborate logo. Or worse: it has been registered by someone else. The issue is not that the name is bad. The issue is that no one has explained to them that a brand name does not stand alone on an aesthetic scale. It lies within a legal and strategic spectrum with a clear hierarchy.
What is trademark scope?
In U.S. trademark law, and widely practiced around the world, trade names are classified according to a 5-level spectrum. This spectrum ranges from low to high in terms of distinctiveness and protection. Marty Neumeier in his book The Brand Gap calls distinctiveness the soul of a brand name. If the name does not distinguish you from others, it does not accomplish the most important task.
The five levels in increasing order of protective strength are: Generic (common name), Descriptive (descriptive name), Suggestive (suggestive name), Arbitrary (arbitrary name), and Fanciful (completely invented name). Understanding each level correctly helps business owners avoid legal risks and know how much to invest in building long-term awareness.
Levels 1 and 2: the danger zone
Generic is the primary name for a type of product or service. Naming a coffee chain "Coffee", naming a software company "Software", or naming a bakery "Baguette" all fall into this category. No agency protects generic names, as doing so would monopolize the language of an industry. From a business perspective, a Generic name pushes you into a price war right from the start, as it does not suggest any reason to choose you over others.
Descriptive is a name that directly describes the characteristics, uses, or components of a product. "Pure Drinking Water", "Fast Delivery Service", "Organic Food" are all examples. This level may sound smart because customers immediately understand what you do. However, that is also why it cannot be protected. The Intellectual Property Office argues that no one should monopolize words that describe an industry. Unless you can prove secondary meaning, meaning that the name has become uniquely associated with you through long-term and widespread use, the path to registration is almost closed.
Level 3: the best choice for most businesses
Suggestive is the level that many of the world's most successful brands choose as their starting point. The name Suggestive does not directly describe the product, but evokes a quality, benefit, or emotion associated with it. The reader must infer an additional step, and that step is the whitespace that the brand occupies.
Netflix suggests "net" (network) and "flix" (movies) but does not describe. Grab suggests the action of getting right away, without stating that it is a ride-hailing app. Apple suggests simplicity and accessibility, with no literal connection to computers. Legally, Suggestive names are distinctive enough to be registered and open enough not to require initial explanation costs. Rob Watkins of Catchword, a branding agency, calls this the ideal level in the SMILE/SCRATCH framework: a name that is smooth to say, memorable enough to recall, and flexible enough to expand.
A good name is the shortest thing you can say about your brand.
Marty Neumeier, The Brand Gap
Levels 4 and 5: maximum power, maximum cost
Arbitrary are words that have real meanings in the language but are unrelated to the brand's industry. Apple uses the name of a fruit to refer to a computer company. Amazon uses the name of a river to refer to an e-commerce platform. Shell uses the name of a shell for an oil company. Because there is no obvious connection, this level has strong protection, but the business must invest to create a connection between the word and the industry.
Fanciful is the highest level: words that did not exist in any language before the brand created them. Kodak, Xerox, Häagen-Dazs are all invented words. The protection is almost absolute, as no one can argue that the word belongs to the public domain. However, in return, the entire meaning must be built from scratch through marketing and experience. This is a significant investment that not every business can afford.
Common naming traps in Vietnam
The reality of the Vietnamese market has additional layers of complexity that the international 5-level spectrum does not adequately address.
- Hán Việt names sound elegant but often overlap or are very similar to dozens of other brands in the same industry, especially in the cosmetics, real estate, and pharmaceutical sectors.
- A name that reads well is fine, but if it sounds like a vulgar or negative meaning when reversed, it can be difficult to detect if the namer is not a native of that locality.
- A name without diacritics in a website address or domain can have a completely different meaning, causing unnecessary communication risks.
- Registering a business name at the Department of Planning and Investment does not equate to trademark protection. This is a common misconception that causes many businesses to lose their names after years of building.
Neumeier lists 7 criteria for evaluating a name: distinctiveness, brevity, appropriateness, spelling, likability, extendability, and protectability. In practice, many Vietnamese names meet 5 out of 7 criteria. However, they often fail at the last criterion, which is also the most important.
Before naming: the correct order of the process
The 5-level spectrum is not a creative tool; it is a filtering tool. The correct process usually goes as follows: define the brand's position and personality first, then set criteria for the name. After that, generate multiple options, then run each option through the 5-level spectrum to eliminate those that cannot be protected. Next, check language and culture. Finally, search trademark databases before paying for logo design.
That final step, trademark search, is often overlooked because people think it's a lawyer's job, done after the name has been chosen. In fact, this is the earliest filtering step that needs to be done, and it can save the entire design cost for a name that cannot be used.
References
Marty Neumeier, The Brand Gap and The Brand Flip. Rob Watkins, the SMILE/SCRATCH framework (Catchword, 2012). USPTO Trademark Manual of Examining Procedure (TMEP), trademark classification. Kantar BrandZ Global Report 2023. Vietnam Intellectual Property Law 2022 (amended).