New Research on Trademark′s Distinctiveness

Distinctiveness means a trademark′s ability to identify and distinguish his or her goods from those manufactured or sold by others and to indicate the source of the goods. According to the traditional theory, the distinctiveness could be either inherent or acquired while the former is superior and the latter is nothing but the fiction of the distinctiveness. As a matter of fact, the inherent distinctiveness is not the real distinctiveness but mere an advantageous condition for a trademark to acquire distinctiveness. Therefore there exist no born trademark and only those has acquired distinctiveness could become the real trademark in the market. It is the acquired distinctiveness that determines the strength of a mark while the acquired distinctiveness relies ultimately upon the market and the consumers.