What is a family of trademarks?
By Eric D. Morton
Frequently, I’m approached by trademark owners who want to create a series of related trademarks. They have heard of a trademark family and they want to create one. Since there are some misconceptions about trademark families (and trademarks generally), I’d like to explain what we mean when we talk about a “family” of trademarks.
First of all, a trademark is created by using words or symbols that denote the source of goods or services, as seen by the buying public. This point is frequently misunderstood. One critical factor in establishing, maintaining, and enforcing a trademark is the answer to the following question: Do consumers of the goods or services recognize the words and symbols as associated with the maker of those goods or services? When the answer is yes, this is the essence of an enforceable trademark.
Creating a family of trademarks
A family of trademarks is a group of trademarks that (1) has a recognizable common characteristic, (2) that is distinctive, and (3) that is used so that the purchasing public recognizes the common characteristic to indicate that the trademark owner is the common origin of the goods or services.
