--- title: "can anyone own the word ensurance?" canonical_url: https://ensurance.app/guide/can-anyone-own-the-word-ensurance markdown_url: https://ensurance.app/guide/can-anyone-own-the-word-ensurance.md subtitle: "what a trademark actually protects, why a common noun is hard to own, and forty years of brands that borrowed the spelling. not legal advice" category: ensurance --- # can anyone own the word ensurance? *what a trademark actually protects, why a common noun is hard to own, and forty years of brands that borrowed the spelling. not legal advice* You can register a word as a **trademark** for particular goods or services. But a trademark is not ownership of the word. It is the right to stop other people using a confusingly similar mark on similar goods. Words that describe the product are hard to register. Words that *are* the product cannot be registered at all. And no word, however new or clever, can be copyrighted. *This post is about how words and marks work in general, using one word as the worked example. It is not legal advice. Registry records lag and change; check the home office, and talk to counsel before you name anything.* The word in question is a name for a payment, and the payment is for a forest, a marsh, or a reef — which exist and keep doing their work whether or not any registry has an entry for them. [Ensurance](/manual/ensurance?from=guide) is the name we use for paying to keep that work going. The forest's work does not appear in any trademark register. The name is the only part anyone could try to own. Short answer: nobody owns the word. A few companies hold registrations that include it, for particular services in particular countries — a narrower thing. ## can you trademark a word? what a trademark is, and is not A trademark answers one question for a buyer: *who made this?* It protects the link between a sign — a word, a logo, a shape — and a source of goods or services. It does not take the word out of the language. Three features matter for a word like *ensurance*: **Marks are registered by class.** The international system sorts goods and services into 45 classes. Insurance and financial services are Class 36. Downloadable software is Class 9. Software as a service is Class 42. A registration in one class does not automatically reach another, but classes are a filing system, not a wall: an owner can still object to a similar mark on related goods or services in a different class. The test is whether buyers would be confused about who stands behind them. **Distinctiveness is a spectrum.** A made-up word (*Kodak*) or an unrelated one (*Apple* for computers) is easy to protect. A word that only suggests the product can be registered, with narrower protection. A word that *describes* the product — *Speedy* for a courier — can be registered on the main US register only after the owner shows the public has come to read it as a brand, usually through years of use; in the United States that is a claim of **acquired distinctiveness** under Section 2(f) of the Lanham Act. A word that *is* the product — *insurance* for insurance — is generic, and nobody can own it for that product. **Registration is not possession.** Even a strong registration gives its owner the right to stop confusing uses on the same or related goods and services, not the right to stop a journalist, a dictionary, or a competitor in an unrelated field from using the word in its ordinary sense. (Well-known marks get wider protection against dilution; that is its own subject and does not change the point for an ordinary word.) ## a word cannot be copyrighted People sometimes ask whether a word can be copyrighted instead. It cannot. US copyright regulations exclude "words and short phrases such as names, titles, and slogans" (37 CFR 202.1(a)), and the Copyright Office's circular on the point says this holds "even if the word … is novel, distinctive, or lends itself to a play on words." UK and EU practice reach the same result: a single word has no originality to protect. What copyright does cover is expression — the text of a guide like this one, code, an original logo with enough design in it. Those are protected the moment they are made. The word itself is not. ## forty years of ensurance as a brand Because *ensurance* sounds like *insurance* with a friendlier vowel, companies have been borrowing it for forty years. The public registries tell the story. | years | who | how the spelling was used | where it stands | |---|---|---|---| | 1984–2007 | Bausch & Lomb | LENSURANCE — *lens* plus *insurance* | dead; the first modern *-ensurance* pun on the US register | | 1992–2002 | Nu Skin | ENSURANCE — an antiperspirant, a pun on Procter & Gamble's SURE | P&G opposed it in 1993; the dispute settled; registered in 1996; cancelled in 2002 after no proof of continued use was filed | | 1998– | Ensurance.com | an online insurance marketplace | two live US registrations for ENSURANCE.COM, Class 36, registered 2010 under Section 2(f), since renewed | | 1999–2008 | AES NewEnergy | energy-cost risk management | registered, then cancelled | | 2007–2017 | eleven GmbH / Cyren | enSurance — email security software, Germany and international | expired | | 2011– | Volkswagen Financial Services | "Volkswagen Ensurance" — accident-and-repair cover provided alongside motor insurance in the UK | live UK registration in Class 36, motor-vehicle insurance | | 2014–2024 | Ensurance Ltd (Sydney) | an underwriting agency, ASX-listed | the Australian mark lapsed in 2024 after the company was acquired | | various | Liberty Mutual, Sun Life, CRC Insurance | TEENSURANCE, PENSURANCE, GREENSURANCE | *-ensurance* puns on insurance products; most now dead, GREENSURANCE live | Every US application for the plain word ENSURANCE — they were filed between 1992 and 2007 — is dead. As of October 2026 there is no live EU-wide registration. The live US registrations are two for ENSURANCE.COM, in the insurance class, registered in 2010 under Section 2(f) and since renewed. Notice what most rows have in common. The use leans on *insurance* for the pun to land. *Ensurance* is read as "insurance, but friendlier." That is a fair use of the spelling — in the 1600s and 1700s the word did mean insurance. It is not the only thing it meant, and it is not what we mean by it. ## why a common noun is hard to own *Ensurance* has been an English word since 1469. In 1755 Samuel Johnson defined it as "exemption from hazard, obtained by the payment of a certain sum" — that is, as a kind of insurance. The full history is in [the word is older than the industry](/guide/the-word-is-older-than-the-industry?from=guide) and [free from care](/guide/free-from-care-where-the-word-insurance-comes-from?from=guide). The history is not what makes it hard to fence; trademark law asks what a word means to buyers today, and a new spelling of a descriptive word is generally treated like the word itself. In its older sense, *ensurance* also names an act anyone can perform: making sure. A registry can record who uses the word as a sign on which goods; it cannot stop the word being a word. There is a tension here that we would rather name than hide. The more *ensurance* comes back into ordinary use — in a reporter's sentence, an underwriter's memo — the harder it is for anyone to fence the bare word. That applies to us too, and we use it anyway, because it is the right word for the thing. :::johnson **nobody owns a word. a registration only says who can stop a confusing use of a mark, and for what.** — *ensurance* has been an English word since 1469. We use it for what it meant: making sure. [what the word means now →](/manual/ensurance?from=guide) ::: ## what we do with the word We use *ensurance* as the name of a practice, the way Mun's merchants did — a kind of promise. The promise is to fund the present condition of a living system — a hillside, a wetland, a reef — so that its work keeps going, as distinct from *insurance*, which pays after that work fails. The side-by-side is in [ensurance vs insurance](/guide/ensurance-vs-insurance?from=guide). We write it lowercase, mid-sentence, like *insurance*. We do not claim to have coined it; we revived it. And we are glad when other people use it in their own voice, because that is how a word stays alive. Two disambiguations, offered plainly because searchers deserve them. **Ensurance.com** is a different business — an online insurance marketplace, online since 1998 — and has nothing to do with us. **Volkswagen Ensurance** is accident-and-repair cover that Volkswagen Financial Services provides alongside motor insurance in the United Kingdom. If you came here for either business, those are the places. We are **ensurance.app**, and we do not sell insurance. ## if you are naming something Most readers who typed *can you trademark a word* are about to name a company, a product, a protocol, or a fund. A few things the *ensurance* record illustrates, none of them legal advice: 1. **Search before you fall in love.** The USPTO's search tool, the EU's TMview (which covers some eighty offices), and the UK IPO's register are free. Ten minutes there shows who has registered or applied for a spelling, in which classes and countries — not everyone who uses it. 2. **A descriptive name is easy to find and hard to own.** If your name says what you sell, expect to be asked to prove acquired distinctiveness, to disclaim the descriptive part, or both. That is not a defect — it is the trade-off. Descriptive names rank; distinctive names protect. 3. **Puns on well-known marks draw attention.** Nu Skin's antiperspirant drew an opposition from the owner of SURE. Big brands watch *-sure* and *-surance* puns in their own categories. 4. **Classes matter, but they are not a wall.** Check the classes you operate in and the ones next to them. Owners do object across classes when the goods are related. 5. **A design or a compound is easier to protect than a bare common word.** A word plus a distinctive mark, or a two-word name, gives a registry something to hold onto. The word alone, if it is already in the dictionary, usually does not. 6. **Then talk to counsel.** Registry data lags, oppositions happen, and the rules differ by country. This post is a map, not an opinion. If you are writing about this word rather than naming something with it — a reporter, a lexicographer, a student — and want the sources behind the history, [ask us](/contact?from=guide&topic=ensurance-word). We will send the citations, not a pitch. ## frequently asked questions ### can you trademark a word? Yes, for particular goods or services, if the word is distinctive enough for them. A made-up or unrelated word is easiest. A word that describes the product can be registered only after proving the public reads it as a brand (in the US, acquired distinctiveness under Section 2(f)). A word that is the generic name of the product cannot be registered for it. Registration gives the right to stop confusing uses on the same or related goods and services, not ownership of the word. ### can you copyright a word? No. US regulations exclude "words and short phrases such as names, titles, and slogans" from copyright (37 CFR 202.1(a)), even if the word is new or clever. Copyright protects expression — text, code, artwork — not single words. ### is ensurance a trademark? The word appears in trademark registers in several countries, most often for insurance products or services. In the United States the live registrations are for ENSURANCE.COM in the insurance class; in the United Kingdom there are several live registrations, including Volkswagen Financial Services' ENSURANCE for motor-vehicle insurance. Every US application for the plain word, filed between 1992 and 2007, is dead. None of this stops the word being used in its ordinary sense. Check the current registers; this is not legal advice. ### who owns ensurance.com? Ensurance.com is run by Ensurance Inc., a company based in Newport Beach, California, and has been online since 1998 as an insurance marketplace. It is a separate business from ensurance.app and does not sell what we describe. If you are looking for an insurance marketplace, that is where to go. ### can anyone use the word ensurance? As an English word, yes — it has been one since 1469, and a registry cannot take a word out of the language. Whether a particular company may use it as a *brand* for particular goods in a particular country is a trademark question for that company's counsel. ## read next The word is one small piece of a larger thing. For what it pays for, start with [what is ensurance?](/guide/what-is-ensurance?from=guide). For the industry forming around it, [what the ensurance industry actually is](/guide/what-the-ensurance-industry-actually-is?from=guide). For the instruments themselves — a currency whose trading funds a theme, and a certificate on one named place — [general ensurance](/general?from=guide) and [specific ensurance](/specific?from=guide). ## sources [USPTO Trademark Search](https://tmsearch.uspto.gov/) — US records for *ensurance* and *-ensurance* marks, queried 6 October 2026 [USPTO TTABVUE — proceeding 91090720](https://ttabvue.uspto.gov/ttabvue/v?pno=91090720) — Procter & Gamble's 1993 opposition to Nu Skin's ENSURANCE [TMview](https://www.tmdn.org/tmview/) — EU, UK, international, and national records, queried 6 October 2026 [IP Australia — trade mark 1650903](https://search.ipaustralia.gov.au/trademarks/search/view/1650903) — ENSURANCE (Ensurance Ltd), removed 2024, renewal fee not paid [Volkswagen Financial Services UK — Volkswagen Ensurance](https://insurewithvolkswagen.vwfs.co.uk/ensurance.html) — the UK product [Ensurance Inc. — about](https://ensurance.com/about-ensurance-inc/) — the US insurance marketplace, online since 1998 [ASX — Ensurance Ltd investor information (2016)](https://announcements.asx.com.au/asxpdf/20160530/pdf/437kvd81rbzj3v.pdf) — the Australian underwriting agency [WIPO — Nice Classification](https://www.wipo.int/classifications/nice/en/) — the international classification of goods and services for marks: 45 classes [37 CFR 202.1 — material not subject to copyright](https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-37/chapter-II/subchapter-A/part-202/section-202.1) — "words and short phrases such as names, titles, and slogans" [US Copyright Office — Circular 33](https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ33.pdf) — "even if the word … is novel, distinctive, or lends itself to a play on words" ["To Insure Domestic Tranquility and Provide for the Common Defence," Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly](https://repository.uclawsf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2224&context=hastings_constitutional_law_quaterly) — Johnson's 1755 definition of *ensurance* ## the series Read first: [the word is older than the industry](/guide/the-word-is-older-than-the-industry?from=guide) — what the word means today and what the dictionaries say. - [free from care: where the word insurance comes from](/guide/free-from-care-where-the-word-insurance-comes-from?from=guide) - [ensure vs insure vs assure](/guide/ensure-vs-insure-vs-assure?from=guide) - [can anyone own the word ensurance?](/guide/can-anyone-own-the-word-ensurance?from=guide)