In the home products market, from furniture and home textiles to décor and kitchenware, brand positioning is everything. Labels like handmade, sustainable, or luxury are widely used to attract consumers, but these buzzwords can create unexpected legal challenges for business owners.
What is a trademark?
A trademark is a legal tool that allows a business to identify and protect the source of its goods or services. It can be a word, logo, symbol, slogan, or even a combination of these elements. The main purpose of a trademark is to help consumers distinguish your products from those of competitors and prevent confusion in the marketplace.
For home product sellers, furniture, textiles, décor, and kitchenware, trademark registration is critical. A strong trademark communicates quality, builds recognition, and becomes one of your most valuable business assets.
Types of problematic trademark names
1. Descriptive marks
Descriptive trademarks directly describe a characteristic, quality, or feature of the product:
- Handmade Rugs
- Luxury Sofas
- American Home
These names are not immediately registrable. They can become registrable only if you can prove secondary meaning, i.e., that consumers recognize the name as referring to your brand specifically rather than the product itself.
2. Generic terms
Generic’s terms are words that identify the type of product itself:
- “Sofa” for a furniture retailer
- “Rug” for a carpet store
- “Lamp” for a lighting company
Generic terms cannot be registered and cannot become distinctive. Even well-known brands can lose protection if their name becomes genericized, as happened with aspirin, yo-yo, and cellophane.
How to increase the distinctiveness of your trademark
What NOT to do:
- Adding descriptive words to your brand (e.g., company, best, training, agency)
- Making minor, non-significant alterations to the name (e.g., leaving out letters, adding prefixes or suffixes)
Example: Skills, SKLLS, and Skils for educational services are not sufficiently distinctive. Adding a word like “Training” (Skills Training) does not solve the problem.
What TO do:
- Alter the brand name itself to make it distinctive and not descriptive of your products or services. Completely invented or suggestive words (like Apple for mobile phones)
- Register a logo or graphical element that incorporates the brand name.
- Even a descriptive name can achieve trademark protection if paired with a distinctive design.
- This protects both the visual and textual elements of your brand, although the textual element alone may remain unprotectable if descriptive.
How do I know if my brand name is distinctive enough?
Submitting a trademark application without proper assessment is risky. On average, 37% of self-filed applications fail, and they are 2.5 times more likely to be rejected than applications filed with the assistance of a trademark attorney.
It’s therefore strongly recommended to seek legal guidance before attempting registration. A trademark lawyer can provide a free trademark check and advise whether your proposed mark meets the criteria necessary for successful registration.
Bottom line
Your brand name is one of your most valuable assets. Strong trademarks:
- Protect your products from copycats and competitors
- Build recognition and loyalty among customers
- Add tangible value to your business for licensing, franchising, or sale
Investing in a distinctive, legally defensible brand name from the outset ensures your home products business can grow with confidence while minimizing legal risk.
