Can i trademark my logo myself [Expert Review]

Last updated : Aug 29, 2022

Can I do a trademark by myself?

Yes, you can trademark yourself, as long as you are in connection with your products or services. This information was provided by our founding attorney, Xavier Morales, Esq. It is possible for an individual to trademark an image of themselves as a product's logo.

Can I trademark my logo without a business?

By simply having a logo, you have what's known as a common law trademark for your logo. That means that, without doing anything paperwork-wise, you have the sole legal right to use and amend that logo as you see fit.

How can I protect my logo legally?

If you want to protect your brand identity you have to register a trademark for your company name, logos, and slogans. By using the trademark symbol, you notify other people that products they use are your property. In order to prevent unauthorized use of your mark by third parties, you have to choose a strong one.

Is it worth trademarking your logo?

Trademarks protect words, names, symbols, sounds and colors and distinguish one company's goods and products from another. Trademarking a logo not only protects it from being used by other similar companies, it also protects a company from unknowingly infringing upon an existing logo.

What is the cheapest way to trademark?

The basic cost to trademark a business name ranges from $225 to $600 per trademark class. This is the cost to submit your trademark application to the USPTO. The easiest and least expensive way to register your trademark is online, through the USPTO's Trademark Electronic Application System (TEAS).

How long does a trademark last?

A federal trademark lasts 10 years from the date of registration, with 10-year renewal terms. Between the fifth and sixth year after the registration date, the registrant must file an affidavit to state that the mark is still in use.

Should I trademark or copyright my logo?

How to legally protect your logo design. To protect your logo, you need a trademark or service mark (trademarks are generally used for products, while service marks are usually applied to services). You should not copyright or patent a logo design.

How do I get my logo trademarked?

A unique logo can be trademarked by registering it with the USPTO. Anyone can apply online on the USPTO website if the business for which they're authorized to file is principally located inside the U.S. If based outside the U.S., a patent attorney will be required to make the filing.

What happens if you don't trademark a logo?

If you do not register your trademark, you will have legal rights only within the geographic areas where you operate. This means you may be able to stop a subsequent user of the mark, even if it is a bigger company, from using the mark in your geographic area only.

How do I make sure no one steals my logo?

1. Do a trademark search in USPTO or EUIPO for similar trademarks to make sure yours doesn't conflict with another registered mark.
2. Complete a trademark application.
3. Wait and monitor for progress.

How hard is it to trademark a logo?

The simplest and fastest way to submit an application for a trademark is online at the United States Patent and Trademark Office's website. If you're registering your company name, it should take about 90 minutes online. A designed logo could be a more complicated process since the logo has more details.

How long does it take to trademark a logo?

The trademark will be advertised for up to two months, although other businesses may request that this is extended to three months to allow them time to review the trademark registration.

How much does it cost to trademark a logo?

What Does it Cost to Trademark a Logo? The cost to trademark a logo with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is $275–$660 as of June 2020, plus legal fees. You can register a trademark with your state for $50-$150, but federal registration offers a great deal more legal protection.

Should I trademark before LLC?

It is important to get BOTH an LLC and a trademark and it is best to form the LLC BEFORE applying for a trademark. Each offers different protections, and they work together to provide broad protection for your business. It is better to form an LLC before filing a trademark application.

How do I register my logo?

1. Step 1: Choose a unique logo.
2. Step 2: Apply for your logo registration at the earliest.
3. Step 3- Examination of trademark application.
4. Step 4- Show Cause Hearing.
5. Step 5-Publication of Mark in Trademark Journal.
6. Trademark registration & certification.

Where is the best place to file a trademark?

• The Best Trademark Registration Services of 2022.
• LegalZoom.
• Trademark Engine.
• Rocket Lawyer.
• JPG Legal.
• Trademark Plus.
• TrademarkCenter.
• Trademark Factory.

What's the difference between LLC and trademark?

Legal Protection LLCs and trademarks are each an integral part of the business world, but both serve different purposes. While LLCs are legal business entities that protect the personal assets of business owners from lawsuits and bankruptcies, trademarks protect the intellectual property of the business.

What does a trademark protect?

A trademark is a sign capable of distinguishing the goods or services of one enterprise from those of other enterprises. Trademarks are protected by intellectual property rights.

What are the three types of trademarks?

What you'll learn: Arbitrary and Fanciful Trademarks. Suggestive Trademarks. Descriptive Trademarks.

Can you lose a trademark if you don't protect it?

If you don't enforce your trademark, you risk losing reputation, business, sales, customers, and more to the infringer. There's also a concept in trademark law called abandonment. Generally, if you don't use your mark for three years or more, it's considered abandoned.

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Write a comment

hi this is attorney sarah holmes and we are answering another common trademark question that we get which is can i trademark the name or logo of my brand myself the answer to that is yes i suppose you could but you could also you know um do dental surgery on yourself right but would you do that no why because you don't have the experience or the knowledge to do dental dental surgery on yourself now that might be kind of an extreme example and certainly people do diy and submit trademark applications themselves all the time however what i will tell you is that the application may look deceptively simple at times and by that i mean the uspto is very particular in terms of what they're asking you if you do not respond exactly in the way that they want you to respond they will send you a refusal for your mark if you get a refusal it makes it that much more difficult for anybody to straighten that out and be able to salvage your application oftentimes they do not allow significant edits after you've already submitted an application so if it turns out you submitted something wrong there are certain things we just can't fix or we can't expand the scope of your application once it's been submitted the other reason is that the search that most consumers can do on their own is not the same type of search that an attorney could do for example you might be able to search the uspto database and say i saw no exact matches to my name i think i can go ahead and submit this application well that's not the same search that we would do we have special software that we use that combs and analyzes things registered with uspto they look at things on google they see in what other states a business might have a similar name registered and then we analyze the results from that finally uspto is not only concerned with exact name matches to yours so even though it may look like no one else is using your exact name uspto is looking to see whether someone is using a name that sounds like your name whether it means your name in another language whether it's something that could rhyme with your name it could mean the opposite of your name there's a million different ways that they're going to analyze that to see if it in fact is in conflict with another registration and it's not just exact matches so again to sum up yes you certainly could submit your own trademark application you're within your rights to do that but there is a reason that you might pay uh legal counsel do it for you and that's largely in handling the details responding to objections and conducting an adequate and thorough search on the front end to give your application a better chance of going through if you need help with the trademark registration feel free to reach out to our office we can help clients nationwide with trademark matters 215-482-0285 thanks

Thanks for your comment Carla Weiden, have a nice day.
- Karma Mcdewitt, Staff Member

hi I'm Andre Minka the father of trademark factory the only firm in the world where licensed lawyers and Trademark Asians will help you trademark your brand's with a free comprehensive trademark search for our single all-inclusive flat fee with a hundred percent money-back guarantee I'm famous for explaining intellectual property so that a nine year old would understand and today's the question I'm gonna answer is should i trademark my name or my logo so ideally you want to trademark them both as two separate trademarks because each would protect different elements of your brand one would protect the little part of it the name and the other one would protect the graphic representation of that name so usually we kept this question when the client does not have the budget to file to separate trademarks and so here are the considerations for you to decide whether you want to file for the name or the logo so first of all the question is what kind of logo is this is that just the image the the icon or is it the icon plus the name or is it just the name in a fancy font but that that's important because if the icon does not contain the name at all then in ninety percent of the case or 99 percent of the cases you want to go with protecting the name because that's more important I consult the names usually stay the same if the logo contains both the icon and the name so that's called the combined mark if you only have the budget for one yeah usually that's what you want to file for the combination of the image and the name if what you have is just the name and some fancy font usually you'd want to file for the name again because that name would be protected in any font and it will allow you to protect the stylized version and the name itself whether it's in Ariel Father Times New Roman font or whatever fancy font you came up with now the only time you elect to do logo and not the name would be if the registration of the name itself is problematic so you would use the logo as that added element that would make your brand distinctive or different from whatever else has been father registered before so you would have an extra argument that look we're not trying to get a monopoly on the name we understand that there might be some confusion there that's why we have a slightly different name but most importantly we have this graphic element that makes this brand trademark able so again if both are perfectly registerable usually the name is more important than the logo if the name is not trademark able or problematic then you would probably go with the with the logo and if you have a very distinctive name and very distinctive logo but you only have the money to go for one trademark and our payment plans don't help you and you really really really can't afford to do two separate trademarks at that point in time you may want to vote to get the combination build the business stronger and then still file to separate trademarks after that in this case you'll end up owning three brands one would be the combination the other one would be the word mark and the third one would be the logo this is just one of many short videos where I'm providing specific no BS answers to your questions about trademarks so subscribe now and get notified whenever the next video goes live of a ton of content great videos great information will help you understand trademark you better subscribe right now and if you have a brand that you want to protect order your free comprehensive trademark search with register ability opinion by filling out the form at free team starch calm free TM starch calm and we'll take it from there I'll see you in the next

Thanks AxoliValoO your participation is very much appreciated
- Karma Mcdewitt

About the author

Karma Mcdewitt

I've studied brazilian history at University of Wisconsin-Madison in Madison and I am an expert in ordinary differential equations. I usually feel discontent. My previous job was library assistant I held this position for 8 years, I love talking about skimboarding and trainspotting. Huge fan of George Michael I practice hockey and collect film memorabilia.