how to copyright logo and name [Glossary]

Last updated : Sept 4, 2022

How do I copyright my company logo and name?

Registering a trademark for a company name is pretty straightforward. Many businesses can file an application online in less than 90 minutes, without a lawyer's help. The simplest way to register is on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's Web site, www.uspto.gov.

How do I copyright a name and image?

1. Complete the application form. You can either do this online or with a hard copy that you must mail to the U.S. Copyright Office.
2. Include a copy of the work to be copyrighted.
3. Pay the filing fee and submit your application.

How do I copyright my business name and logo for free?

You can not register a trademark for free. However, you can establish something known as a "common law trademark" for free, simply by opening for business. The benefit of relying on common law trademark rights is that it's free, and you don't need to do any specific work filling out forms, etc.

How do I copyright my logo for free?

Can you trademark your logo for free? You can not register a trademark for free. However, what you can do is establish something known as a "common law trademark" for free. You can do this by simply opening for business.

Should I copyright or trademark 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.

Do I need to copyright my logo?

Yes. A logo that includes artistic or design elements, (i.e. not just the name on its own), is legally regarded as being a work of artistic creation and therefore will be protected under copyright law. Copyright protects the logo as an artistic work.

How much does it cost to copyright 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.

How much is a trademark?

No matter how you file, you will pay a minimum of $250 to apply for a Federal trademark. But considering the importance of your trademark, and the potential complexities you face when filing, it's not a bad idea to use a lawyer or filing service.

Can I copyright my name?

No. Names are not protected by copyright law. Some names may be protected under trademark law. Contact the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, TrademarkAssistanceCenter@uspto.gov or see Circular 33 "Copyright Protection Not Available for Names, Titles, or Short Phrases".

Where can I copyright my logo?

Go to the online registration website and fill out the form for copyright. If your business is located in the United States, go to the official website of the United States Copyright Office to e-file your copyright application. You can also submit your application in paper form.

How long does a copyright last?

As a general rule, for works created after January 1, 1978, copyright protection lasts for the life of the author plus an additional 70 years.

Do I need to copyright my company name?

Registering your business name for a trademark isn't required in order for you to have trademark rights. However, a registered trademark can provide greater protection for your brand while helping you build your brand and drive business growth.

How can I create my own copyright?

To register your copyright, you need to go to the eCO Online System, create an account, and then fill out the online form. There's a basic fee of $35 if you file online. The processing times are generally faster if you apply online, but eFiling still takes between three and four months, according to Copyright.gov.

Can someone steal my logo?

Logo theft is a violation that occurs when one party steals or uses another party's trademarked logo without their permission. This is a more specific term for trademark infringement, and can take many forms. It typically involves the theft of a trademark or a service mark.

How do I register my logo?

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.

When should I trademark my logo?

Generally, if you're using your logo in relation to your business and you're selling goods or services utilizing the logo, filing a trademark application should be at the top of your priority list.

How do I protect my logo?

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.

What happens if I don't trademark my 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.

What happens if you don't trademark a logo?

If you do not officially register your logo with the USTPO, you can still use it. That's because using a logo creates a "common law" trademark. Common law trademarks use either the "TM" (trademark) or "SM" (service mark) symbol to inform businesses that you own your logo.

What is the difference between copyright and trademark?

Copyrights primarily protect the rights of people who create literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works (like history tests, and software code). Trademarks protect the use of a company's name and its product names, brand identity (like logos) and slogans.

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he folks today we're going to be discussing the differences between copyright and Trademark just a quick disclaimer to say that I am NOT an IP professional if you do require intellectual property advice please do seek out professional help so what is copyright copyright is there to protect your original creative works you can't copyright an idea you can copyright things like literary work dramatic works Musical and artistic work as long as they are in a tangible form what do I mean by a tangible form well things like books film recordings websites software photography paintings or graphic design elements like business cards or brochures having the copyright then gives you the exclusive rights to perform distribute make copies of or even make adaptations of your original creative work here in the UK there is no requirement to register your copyright it just happens automatically as soon as the work is created this may be different in your location so please check with your local Copyright Office or intellectual property office to get the full facts on how copyright is assigned in your country protection on copyright generally lasts for the lifetime of the author Plus 70 years again this may be different in your country so please check once you have created your work and the copyright is assigned you then have permission to use that little copyright symbol the little C inside the circle along with the year that the work was created however there is no requirement to use that little C symbol the copyright still remains with you at all times so let's move on to registered marks there are two types of registered marks and both of these can be used to protect the sale of products or services for a business the first is the trademark which is used to protect goods or products and the second is a service mark which you would use to protect services that you provide generally though people tend to use the town trademark to cover both our trademark and the service mark for the purpose of this video I will be using the term registered mark which covers both examples of things that can be covered by a registered mark would be a company name a slogan a sound a color under logo once you have that registered mark you have the exclusive rights to use that mark with your product or service it allows you to stop other companies businesses or organizations from using a similar mark to promote or sell a similar product or service what you can't do is you can't prevent someone from using a similar mark if they are using it to promote or sell a dissimilar product or service let's look at this example of two locals one for Sun Microsystems and the other for Columbia Sportswear now visually these two logos are very similar especially if they were both in black for example and you just had a quick glance at the logos the reason that both of these similar logos can exist and be registered as marks is that there are two completely different industries Sun Microsystems is in software and computing and Columbia is in sportswear two very different industries now however let's say Sun Microsystems were in the spa for businesses while then we would have an issue because they would both have similar marks selling or trading similar products this can't happen so what would happen here is that the company that registered their mark first would be able to prevent the second company from registering the mark which is similar to theirs and in a similar industry in its simplest form registered marks are there to help the consumer differentiate between brands and the products and services that they sell if when you try to register a new mark the internal Property Office will look at existing marks and if they feel that by registering your mark this may cause confusion for the consumer when they are looking to buy a product or service from someone who is in the same industry as you they will deny you that registration once you have registered your mark though you can use the little R symbol inside the circle next to your logo or your brand name unlike copyright registered marks can last indefinitely but they do have to be renewed every 10 years one thing that you cannot do is you cannot register a mark and sit it on a shelf for use at a later date for a registered mark to be viable it must be in constant use so those are the main differences between copyright under registered mark or as I mentioned earlier most people just use the town trademark I hope this cleared up any confusion you may have had in the past about the two terms and you can move forward safe in the knowledge that you have the correct understanding for both for more brand and design advice why not join hundreds of other brand rockers who have signed up to my rock your brand monthly email newsletter it's absolutely free and the advice that I give in there will help you to strengthen your brand and stand out from your competition head on over to rock your brand or quote at UK and sign up until I see you next time folks stay creative

Thanks for your comment Nicky Keller, have a nice day.
- Antione Marca, Staff Member

okay hey guys welcome back to the channel um in this week's video i want to show you how you can create a custom logo that you can then get copywriting i feel like there's a lot of confusion online about how to do this the proper way so i want to help clear up that mess as best as i could whether you're an artist a designer a musician or you're just starting a new company i want to teach you how you could create your own 100 original logo that you could then get copywriting so when we look at companies like nike adidas and walmart they all appear to be using this similar font and they're not breaking copyright infringement and i want to show you exactly how they're doing that at the end of this video if you learned something please give it a like comment below and as always subscribe uh we're gonna be making more educational videos entertainment videos and all that so uh let's jump into it so a lot of people think that they could just go on the computer um open up photoshop or illustrator and type out a logo using helvetica like i have here as much as i would love to keep this because it looks great and it was easy to do this is not the proper way because i use helvetica and if i copyright that it'll be a weak logo mark and a workaround that people have come up with and a workaround people have come up with for this is to alter it a little bit by um extending the legs and just giving it a little bit more of a custom look and they think well if i do that now it's it's a unique logo that could then get copyrighted this is my original company logo and that's not the case at all because we've used helvetica as the font and we've altered it a little making it a derivative font and that really isn't the best way you want to represent your company so we really can't do that so i know what you're thinking well how are all these companies doing it then so what they're doing is creating their logo 100 from the beginning to look like helvetica but not actually using helvetica and then altering it or they're not just straight up using helvetica so in simple terms you could create your logo to look however ish as long as from the beginning you create an original drawing you can't start with helvetica and then alter it and you can't just use helvetica those would be weak logo marks derivative fonts and that isn't really a strong way to hold up in court in case you get caught um so we are going to make the make moves letters for walking giants and i'm going to show you exactly how i'm going to do that i'm going to make a drawing that looks helvetica-ish but as you can see it is going to be a 100 original drawing from the beginning and this is the proper way to create a logo that can then get copyrighted for your company so let's jump into itreally this all right guys so welcome to the end of the video as you can see i created the entire make moves logo that looks like a hobotica font completely from scratch and again this is the proper way to make a copyrightable logo you start from scratch you vector it and then you actually submit it to the government site where you'll get a certificate of registration so what i mean by that is to start your copyright you would just go to copyright.gov make an account with them and just follow the steps to register a copyright it's really straightforward it's really simple the site gives you all information you need to just plug it in and submit it's really cheap it's only 55 and you can submit up to as many items as you want that you can fit on a sheet of paper so what i mean by that is when you go to submit you'll submit a sheet of paper size document and as many things as you could fit on that document is what will get copyrighted now that'll take about four to eight weeks the government is really slow as you guys know probably work with the dmv and other government agencies they always take forever but in about four to eight i would say maybe even 10 weeks you should get a document that looks something like this now this is a copy of my official copyrights i own about eight copyrights i copyright all the work that we make for walking giants and this is the actual certificate of registration distributed by the government sealed with the united states copyright office seal and with the registration number um as you can see the seal is here your registration number will be here the title of your work will be right here um the year was published your information will be the author the copyright claim all this stuff it is very simple the site makes it really easy to provide all information you need to um pretty much just plug and submit so i would recommend that when you go to submit your copyright document fit as many things as you can at a visibly appropriate size and uh then you could submit then you could copyright up to you know a dozen things at once for the price of one the amount of items on the document doesn't affect the price so if you could fit you know 20 things you could copyright 20 things with the price of one which is 55 so if you found this video helpful please give it a like comment below and as always subscribe we're always trying to come up with more creative cool um videos for you guys so please support the channel if you also want to get some merch link for the merch is in the description below and um yeah thank you guys for watching peace

Thanks ductivoQ your participation is very much appreciated
- Antione Marca

About the author

Antione Marca

I've studied post-modern literature at Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis in Brookline and I am an expert in soil mechanics. I usually feel moody. My previous job was plant breeder I held this position for 22 years, I love talking about dog walking and snowshoeing. Huge fan of Sia I practice alpine skiing and collect vintage cars.