How should I go about Trademarking?
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How should I go about Trademarking?
I have a logo for my company and a name for it, should I register
trademarks for both the name and the logo? Or can I just register the
name and then since the logo includes the name it will be okay?
Asked on March 20, 2019 under Business Law, Michigan
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 5 years ago | Contributor
Trademark the name separately, the logo separately, and the two as a unit. There are two reasons for this:
1) Until you try to trademark, you don't know whether you will get the mark or whether it will be deemed too generic or descriptive, or too similar to some existing mark(s), to trademark. Trademarking all the iterations above maximizes the odds of getting at least one useful trademark.
2) A trademark only protects the thing trademarked, not other elements it is used with. So say you are trying to trademark "Alligator Accounting" and have a logo of an alligator holding an adding machine which will go with the name. If you only trademark the name, your alligator logo is unprotected (and if you trademarked only the logo, the name would be unprotected). You want to trademark everthing of value to you.
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