Trademark registration: protecting your logo design
Website design By BotEap.comQuestion: Is registering a federal trademark the correct way to protect a registration design?
Website design By BotEap.comAnswer: Depends…
Website design By BotEap.comThe answer to this question depends on how you intend to use the mark in commerce. For example, suppose you develop a logo or design that you and your friends really like, and people ask you for a T-shirt that displays the logo. So now you plan to go into the business of selling t-shirts, hoodies, etc., with your logo prominently displayed. But before you do, you want to make sure and protect your logo design. Is the brand the best protection?
Website design By BotEap.comRemember, a trademark is an identifier. The mark identifies to the consuming public the producer of a particular product, or in the case of a service mark, the source of a particular service. With use in commerce, it becomes a recognizable logo design that identifies your product or services from those products or services of others. That’s not what the logo design on our t-shirt example is doing. You are not a manufacturer of t-shirts, sweatshirts. You are simply buying the clothing from another source to show off your new design. The logo is simply displayed on the t-shirt, it is a work of art. Under trademark law, matter that is merely a decorative feature does not identify or distinguish the business owner’s products and therefore does not function as a registered trademark. You are not using the logo design as a trademark, but as an identifier. Therefore, I would not recommend seeking trademark protection, but rather apply for copyright registration on the design.
Website design By BotEap.comHowever, if you have a product and you intend to display the same new logo on the product and/or display the new logo design on product packaging as well as product advertising materials, you are clearly using the logo as a brand With continued use in commerce, you are teaching the public that when they see the logo design on a product, on packaging, or in advertising, your company is the source of the product. In this case, the trademark registration is the correct way to protect the design.
Website design By BotEap.comIs your name, logo, design actually a trademark or more ornamentation? Same exact design logo, however, in one example copyright registration is the answer, and in the second example trademark registration is the answer. It all depends on how you use the mark in commerce.