Which type of trademark uses existing words but does not describe the actual products of the company?

The type of trademark that uses existing words without describing the actual products of the company is known as suggestive trademarks. Suggestive trademarks require some imagination on the part of the consumer to make a connection between the mark and the product. They hint at the characteristics or qualities of the goods or services but do not explicitly describe them.

For example, if a company sells a cleaning product named "QuickClean," while the name suggests speed in cleaning, it does not directly describe the nature of the product itself. This allows the trademark to protect the brand without being too generic or descriptive.

In contrast, arbitrary trademarks use common words in a completely unrelated context, such as "Apple" for computers, while fanciful trademarks consist of invented words, like "Kodak." Descriptive trademarks, on the other hand, describe the actual characteristics or qualities of the products, making them less distinctive and harder to protect without demonstrating secondary meaning. Thus, suggestive trademarks strike a balance between being descriptive and being purely arbitrary or fanciful, making them an effective choice for branding.