helpful. what is the difference between a descriptive and generic trademark? from your examples it is hard to tell.

In general, a mark is descriptive if it conveys an immediate idea of the ingredients, qualities of characteristics of the product, while a generic term is a common term for the product. In the above example, "matchmaker" would be a descriptive term while "dating service" would be a generic term.

In my prior example, "matchmaker" is arguably very close to the line between generic and descriptive. Perhaps a better example would be "Christian Singles" as a descriptive term, and "dating service" would be generic.