4.3 Functions and Types/Kinds of Trademark and Trademark Distinctiveness Spectrum

The functions: the source function (whose product is this?); the quality function (the consistent expectation); the advertising function (the marketing vehicle); the economic function (the transferable asset). The types: word, device and composite marks; service marks (services, not goods); collective and certification marks (the association's mark; the standards' seal — the GI bridge of U6.1); well-known marks (the Paris Article 6bis cross-class protection); trade names and domain names (the neighbouring worlds; the domain-and-mark conflicts of the cyber age). The distinctiveness spectrum (the exam's ladder): 1. Fanciful/arbitrary — invented or unrelated signs ("Kodak"-type): the strongest protection. 2. Suggestive — the imagination's bridge (a hint, not a description): protectable. 3. Descriptive — describes the goods (quality, purpose, place): weak; protectable only on secondary meaning (acquired distinctiveness through use and fame). 4. Generic — the common name of the product ("escalator"'s lesson): never protectable; the name's death by success.