: What is the status of numbers in the Mollerup's taxonomy for trademarks? I am wondering how are numbers treated within the taxonomy of trademarks by Per Mollerup which is explained in his book

@Berumen635

Generally speaking, you can’t trademark numbers because they are not distinctive enough. There are exceptions, but they prove the rule because they are things like Boeing’s “747” where the number became so absurdly well known that you could say “seven-four-seven” to a random person in the street and they would know you were referring to the airplane, and even in that case, it was only after the 747 became famous that Boeing got the trademark. If creating a new trademark today, you would never want to make one that was only numbers. There is almost no chance of trademarking it.

So to the specific point of your question, there shouldn’t be a place in the taxonomy for numbers-only trademarks. Numbers can accessorize letters and words to make something distinctive, but numbers by themselves are not distinctive.

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