Can I Register a Trademark For A Logo Or Design?
Yes, you can register a trademark for a logo or a design! Any distinctive element, including logos and designs, can be registered as a trademark for your goods and services. So long as it is distinctive and it doesn’t infringe on anyone else’s existing trademarks, it can be registered. “Distinctive” means that the design is different from those of others who are producing the same goods and services, such that when a consumer sees the trademark, they know that it comes from your business, rather than someone else’s business. A distinctive design gives a consumer information about the source of the goods and services, so that the consumer can distinguish between the different goods and services offered in the marketplace.
What Is A Design Trademark?
We call these types of marks “design marks,” and design marks can be registered for any product or service. Just as a word mark can be registered for any product or services, a design trademark can be registered for any product or service. We see design marks appearing frequently in the marketplace, and some are so distinctive that we have only to describe the mark, and anyone would know what brand we are referring to. For example, if I say, “I don’t like the Swoosh tennis shoes; they give me blisters,” you know without me saying the brand name what shoes I’m referring to: Nike brand shoes, with their distinctive Swoosh design. That design is a registered trademark, and one of the most famous and well-regarded brands in the world. If I say to you, “I like the “3-Stripe” shoes because they make the heel narrower so that my foot doesn’t slip around in the shoe,” you know that I’m referring to Adidas, also a very famous brand. When I go shopping, I can look for shoes that carry the “3-Stripe” brand that I like, and avoid the “Swoosh” shoes that don’t fit me. This is why trademarks exist: To give information to the consumer about the source of the goods and services that they are looking to purchase.
Examples of design marks include things like logos, distinctive designs that you add to your product (like the Panerai watch distinctive crown protector) or even colors, under the right circumstances.
Color Can Serve As A Trademark
A color can serve as a trademark, so long as the trademark is distinctive as to the product, and it doesn’t have a functional use for the product. An example of a distinctive color trademark would be Christian Louboutin’s red shoe soles, which serve a decorative and distinctive function — to identify the Louboutin shoes among all the other shoes out there in the marketplace. Another example is Tiffany’s robin’s-egg blue trademark for packaging and household and decorative items. The color itself serves no function, except to identify the source of the goods and services. The trademark must, however, be of a color that is non-functional for that type of product. If you manufacture traffic cones, you will not be able to obtain a trademark for the color yellow or orange. Why? Because as to traffic safety cones, the color, if
Register Your Trademark If You Want To Protect It From Trademark Infringers
The most important thing to remember is that if you want to protect your mark nationwide, and you want to be able to enforce your trademark rights, then you need to register your trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. If you don’t register, then the trademark office has no idea that you’re using your trademark, and they could issue a similar registration to a competitor. To avoid this, I strongly recommend that you register your most important brands, be they word marks or design marks.
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Contact Dallas, Texas trademark attorney Angela Langlotz today to get started on a trademark application for your valuable brand.