Q: Is it ok to trademark the name of my greeting card company with the words greeting card in it.
A: An attorney would need to review the trademark and how you use it in commerce to answer this question. Generally speaking, you cannot register words that are descriptive of the goods or services. If descriptive words are paired with other distinctive words, you may be able to register the mark as a whole, but disclaim the descriptive words. Using your example, you could include "greeting card" within a trademark with other distinctive elements, but you could not exclude other greeting card companies from using the words "greeting card" to describe their products.
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