How to Trademark a Logo

December 2nd, 2009 by Mike

When deciding to trademark a logo there are some steps that will need to be taken before you officially make it trademarked. You will need to have searched to be sure that the logo you are interested in making a trademark logo is not a logo that has already been trademarked. If you have chosen a trademark logo and did not know it you will need to choose another logo to get started. You will end up looking through thousands of logo’s so be sure to grab a cup of coffee and a doughnut or biscuit and grab a comfortable chair and get started going through all the logos that have already been registered. Either way you will end up doing this as the process gets started.

You should contact a trademark lawyer to be sure to follow the process so that the trademark logo you are interested in is not already a trademark logo and could infringe upon someone else’s design. When obtaining a trademark logo attorney he or she will advise you when it is safe to proceed to the next step in obtaining your trademark logo.

There are a number of websites that offer you the option to check and see if your logo is a registered trademark. You should know that when you trademark a logo you are not copyrighting the wording on your logo but the graphic presentation that your logo is displaying. Since the logo can be registered as a trademark you will want to be sure that you register the trademark and if need be you can patent the wording on the logo. This is another form of how to trademark a logo. You must file a patent for both the wording and the logo.

You can file for a trademark application online with out having to actually go down to a government office and apply for one. By applying online it is a much easier process than it is actually going into a office and standing in line for who knows how long to obtain the proper paperwork. Once you have searched through what they refer to as the USPTO website (USPTO stands for the United States Patent and Trademark Office) to make sure the trademark is available you can continue the process of submitting all necessary paperwork.

Once all the paperwork has been turned into the USPTO you will be notified once the process has been approved or in the event it has not been you will be notified as well then. Once your application has been approved your logo will then not be able to be used by other companies and will give you the infringement benefit if they do use the logo. If they use the logo with your permission then will have to give the credit back to you with your business name and website or business information.

As you can see it is fairly simple yet fairly complicated to provide a trademark logo for your company. Once the trademark logo is approved it will be placed in the USPTO’s official database and will pop up when some one creates a search that contains any information that your logo has on it. It is really that easy to do.