What are the categories of marks? The categories of marks are arbitrary, suggestive, descriptive and generic. An arbitrary mark is known as your strongest mark and that is a mark that has no connection to the good or service. For example, a camel. A camel has nothing to do with cigarettes, but it’s a mark using connection with cigarettes and it’s a very well known and strong mark.

A suggestive mark suggests some connection to the product, but still is not descriptive. Chicken of the Sea, it has a suggestive nature to it. It’s food. It comes from the sea. A descriptive mark describes the good or services and as rule they are not register able or it can function as a trademark, because everyone should be allowed to describe what their goods are and the qualities of their goods. And a generic is really not a mark at all. It’s just the name of a good. That’s a football. That’s a basketball. No one can use it as a trademark, because it’s the identity of the good.