Fanciful trademarks are generally considered the strongest category of trademarks because the terms have no meaning outside of their association with the brand.

Well-known examples include made-up words that were created specifically to identify products or services.

Because these marks are highly distinctive, they are often easier to distinguish from competitors.

Trademark law places marks on a spectrum of distinctiveness. In general, the more unusual and brand-specific a mark is, the easier it is to distinguish from ordinary language and the stronger it may be as a source identifier. Fanciful, arbitrary, and suggestive marks are usually stronger than merely descriptive wording, while generic terms generally cannot function as trademarks for the goods or services they name.

The USPTO evaluates the mark as a whole and in relation to the specific goods or services listed in the application. A term that is weak or descriptive in one industry may have a different meaning in another, so eligibility is highly dependent on context.