text: what is the difference between brand name and trade mark?   a brand name is simply the name of a company, product, service, or combination of these. (e.g. coke, chevrolet, ibm, jelly belly, etc.) if you want to get technical, you can also have "sub-brands" like cherry coke, diet coke, etc.  a trademark is something entirely different. it's simply a legally protected word or phrase, used to "protect" that word or phrase. typically protection only applies within a specific business category (e.g. beverages) and within a specific country. the protection prevents others in the industry from using the same phrase. examples of things that may bear a trademark are brand names, taglines ("the choice of a new generation"), or the names of sub-brands or specific services: "mcgriddle". it's also possible to trademark sounds (the abc tones, the sound of a harley davidson engine) and logos (but sometimes with limited success - harley davidson was not successful. - the sound was deemed too generic and therefore "not ownable".)  don't confuse tm with copyright - a copyright is obtained by registering an entire text, song, or other full proprietary creation like a book, article, lyrics, etc.