Names are very popular trademarks – trademarking a business name, for example, is commonplace. A business name trademark, however, must be unique and non-obvious. You cannot trademark a name like “Speedy Dry Cleaners” because thousands of dry cleaners already have the same name. Being descriptive of what a good dry cleaner is, it is too generic to be trademarked. Even something like “Cheetah Dry Cleaners” may be too descriptive by association to be eligible for a trademark.

Arbitrary names are often the best candidates for business name trademarking – “Apple” for a computer company, for example. Recall that a trademarked business name applies only to that product area a business operates in – thus someone might open an “Apple Dry Cleaners” business or trademark the name themselves.