Branding with marketing trademarks adds another layer of complexity to traditional botanical taxonomy and nomenclature

Abstract Fundamental to writing a scientific paper is the need to define accurately the plant and other materials used in an experiment. The basics of long‐standing international rules which define plant species and cultivar names (the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature and the International Code of Nomenclature for Cultivated Plants) are briefly explained. Based on the standard of nomenclature used in manuscripts submitted to recent International Turfgrass Research Conferences, these rules appear to be poorly understood and applied nowadays by many plant scientists. Additionally and over the past 25–30 years, the commercial use of branding (via trademark names) to market turfgrasses, especially warm‐season varieties, has increased rapidly, but universities have been slow to pick up on this trend, research how branding operates and its effect—beneficial or otherwise—for both marketers and consumers, and add it as a curriculum topic to improve the understanding of its nomenclatural implications by scientists. The properties of trademarks and protected cultivar names are described, together with how these two very different, yet complementary, forms of intellectual property interact commercially through branding to market plant varieties. Current and future options and opportunities with branding are briefly discussed.