Trademark examiners review trademark registration applications to either allow or refuse a registration. Some of the substantive reasons for refusing registration include:
- likelihood of confusion;
- primarily merely descriptive;
- deceptively misdescriptive of the goods/services;
- primarily geographically descriptive;
- primarily geographically deceptive;
- misdescriptive of the goods/services;
- primarily merely a surname; or
- mere ornamentation.