In these days of five-second glimpses and continuous scrolling, you need design to catch a person’s eye and quickly. A logo can help with these challenges because it can create instant recognition for a business. We talk to many people about their logos and the importance of protection. Can they just protect the wording for the business? Is it really necessary to protect a logo?
Your logo is the face of your business and can let a person, visually speaking, know what you value. Within a second people can look at your logo and judge if you are trendy, old-school, open to a phone call or closed off. Your logo needs to represent who you are as a company, so why wouldn’t you protect it? It can be overwhelming on how to start the process, but we have laid out simple steps on how you can go about doing it.
First, hire an attorney very familiar with the trademark application process. We know this seems like a sales-pitch, but it isn’t. We have seen too many times where people hire companies to file their trademark applications and something was done incorrectly. We will be able to walk you through the process from start to finish and make sure your logo is fully protected.
Second, find out who designed your logo. It’s not enough to just pay someone to design a logo for you, and then say you own it. The opposite of this is often true. Generally speaking, until the artist or company you hired signs over their rights to you, they technically own the copyright in the logo. This is why taking the first step above is critically important when wanting to protect a logo. So many people do not know this fact, and we have to help people make sure this important step is taken even if they have a registered trademark for the logo. An additional related step that can be taken is having your attorney register the copyright in the logo, which is a separate application process wherein the application is filed with the U.S. Copyright Office.
Lastly, have your attorney file the trademark application(s) with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. This can be a daunting process, and unfortunately no attorney can ever guarantee an application will mature to registration. However, we can with certainty say that taking the risk is often better than not doing anything because if you do get a registered logo then all of the hard-work and research become worth it in the end.
Don’t let someone else steal your brand or what you are building. Be proactive and protect your logo.