A trademark distinguishes goods and services (indicating the source of the products), whereas a trade name is the name of the business itself. The law also sets different requirements for each. Trademark law is stricter; for example, a trademark must not be descriptive of its goods and services. Trade name law is more lenient, as the requirement for distinctiveness does not apply to trade names. However, there is a limit. Since name rights arise automatically through use, their scope of protection is also limited to the area of use. This means the protection is confined to the geographical region where the business operates, which can be very local. A trademark registration, on the other hand, provides protection throughout the entire Benelux or, in the case of an EU trademark, across the entire European Union, even if it is used only in a limited local area.
