Answer
What is a trademark?
Lawyers call this: trademark · service mark · 15 U.S.C. § 1127
Short answer
A trademark is a brand. It is the name, logo, or slogan that tells buyers who a product comes from. When you see NIKE on a shoe, you know which company stands behind it. That job — pointing to one source — is what makes something a trademark.
What changes the answer
- Whether it names a product or a service
- A mark for things you sell, like shoes or coffee beans, is a trademark. A mark for work you do, like cleaning or consulting, is a service mark. The same rules apply to both, and most people call both trademarks.
- Whether buyers see it as a brand
- A word only works as a trademark if buyers read it as a sign of who sells the product. A plain description, like “Fresh Bread” for a bakery, tells buyers what the product is, not who makes it.
- Which products it is used on
- Trademark rights attach to a word as used for particular goods or services, not to the word itself. APPLE is the ordinary name for the fruit. It is a strong brand for computers.
- Whether you are actually using it
- In the United States, you get rights mainly by using the mark to sell things. Registration adds more rights, but use comes first.
The rule
Federal trademark law is the Lanham Act. It defines a trademark as any word, name, symbol, or device, or a combination of them, that a person uses, or plans to use, to identify and distinguish their goods from those sold by others and to show where the goods come from, even if the buyer does not know the company’s name. 15 U.S.C. § 1127. The same section defines a service mark in the same terms, for services.
A trademark is not the same as a business name. Your company’s legal name identifies the company. The law calls that a trade name, and it becomes a trademark only when you use it to brand what you sell. Id.
A trademark is also different from a copyright or a patent. A copyright protects creative work, like a book or a photo. A patent protects an invention. A trademark protects the brand on the product.
What to do next
If you are picking a name for a product or service, choose one that does not simply describe what you sell. Then check whether someone else is already using a similar name for similar goods. Both steps are things you can start on your own, and the other Answers in this section explain how.
Attorney review is provided by Valet Law, PLLC, a law firm separate from Trademark Valet, LLC. Keep confidential facts out of public tools. Your first message to Valet Law should identify the parties and the general issue only. Wait until Valet Law confirms it can discuss the matter before sending confidential details.
Who checked this
Reviewed and approved by Brandon Leavitt on 2026-10-02.
General information about how trademark law works. It is not legal advice about your situation, and reading it does not make anyone your lawyer.