Many people have questions it comes to trademark law and it is not hard to see why. One of the most common questions that comes up in this area is can you trademark a word ? On first glance it would seem like this is unlikely, the truth is in the right situation you can absolutely trademark a single word and there are several circumstances where this happens quite often. Read on to learn more.
When Can You Trademark A Word?
One time you trademark a word is if it is the name of the company. One of the most obvious ones in the world is Google. While everybody knows Google is the company that helps you find things online the original definition of that word is a number, a one followed by 100 zeros. Yet that word is obviously trademark and for good reason. There are many other examples of this such as Apple, Dell, Intel, and many more. In these situations you can trademark a single word.
Another time on this is possible is when the word is made up or very specifically attributed to one copyrighted character of some kind. For example the producers of the TV show "The Big Bang Theory" may copyright the "word" "Bazinga" because it is unique to the character and obviously part of the property of the show.
While these particular situations are often a little bit more rare, they do occur frequently enough to have their own area of trademark and or copyright law. This is also a great example of answering the question when can you trademark a word? These situations are a clear answer to that very specific legal question.