Trademarking Foreign Words: Should I Include the Accents?

English isn’t an easy language to learn, but it does have one thing going for it: English rarely uses diacritics. A diacritic, also called a diacritical mark, is a mark placed above or below (or sometimes next to) a letter in a word to indicate a particular pronunciation—be it enunciation, tone, or stress.  In some cases, diacritics can also change the meaning of a word, especially when an alternate version of the word—also known as a homograph—exists without the marked letter or letters.  Accents on words are the most common types of diacritics—think the accent aigu in French or the umlaut in German. 

Even though we don’t often use diacritical marks in everyday English, brand and product names are filled with words containing diacritics—from Hermès, L'Oréal Paris, and Lancôme, to Uterqüe and Castañer  As a result, to ensure the enforceability of your trademark, you will want to make sure to include things like accents and cedillas if the context calls for it in your trademark application.

Indeed, diacritical marks are actually contemplated by the Trademark Manual of Examining Procedure, which explains that diacritical marks are classified as standard character marks and can be used in standard character drawings. The USPTO’s list of standard character marks that can be used in your trademark specifically includes diacritical marks.

So, what does this mean to the trademark applicant? It means that if the name of your company or product has a diacritic in it, and if you use that form of the name when holding your business or its goods/services out in interstate commerce, you should include that diacritical mark in your trademark application.  If you fail to include it, an infringing party could argue that the mark in your application is not the one being used in commerce because it doesn’t include the diacritic and thus should be seen as a different mark.  Trademark applicants would be wise to avoid this risk by ensuring their applications include any relevant diacritics.