As a business owner, you could assign your company’s tangible assets—such as your machinery, supplies, and any premises you own—the greatest priority. Your intellectual property, albeit less pronounced, might nevertheless be crucial for a small corporation.
Anything that sets your company’s products or services apart from competitors in a commercial context, including your company name, slogan, and logo, is eligible for trademark rights.
Numerous advantages come with business trademark service, and it can stop rivals from utilizing your company’s assets. But registered trademarks can also be difficult and expensive.
Here, we’ll outline the key steps and related fees so you can clearly understand logo design servicesand what it costs to trademark a company name. Additionally, we’ll discuss how to save money.
Describe a Logo
A logo is a graphic your business uses to identify itself on goods, signage, and advertisements. A logo, like those for Coca-Cola or McDonald’s, is frequently a representation of the name of your business. Other logos, like the Apple or Nike swoosh, represent a business that doesn’t use words.
What is a Trademark?
A trademark grants you the authority to prevent third parties from utilizing your company’s name, emblem, or tagline. A trademark can protect any image that identifies your company as the maker of a good.
Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Register Your Logo as a Trademark Many business owners are unaware that their logo is secured even if it isn’t registered. Your logo is protected by legal system trademark rights at the municipal level as early as you utilize it in commerce. By placing the TM symbol close to your logo, you may legitimately claim ownership of it.
To be safeguarded outside your immediate region, you must apply with our state or the USPTO. If you cannot pay to register all your name and your logo, you may decide not to submit your logo. It is better to register your company name as a trademark if you must make a decision. Small business owners frequently design their logos and may decide to update them over time.
It can be cheaper to develop a new logo than file a lawsuit if someone else begins using yours. Additionally, your company name may appear in your logo, domain name, and some other branding applications. Your brand will be more thoroughly protected if you file your company rather than only protecting your logo.
Why You Should Trademark Your Logo
If you don’t register your logo, common law security only applies locally and will not apply when someone else is still using an identical design. You get protection in every state if you register your trademarks with the USPTO. You can file lawsuits and register the brand logo in other nations if you have a federal trademark.
To safeguard your brand. You can file lawsuits to demand monetary damages or even file charges against anybody who attempts to utilize your mark. By utilizing an equal sign, you may also be sure that you are not infringing on someone else’s trademark.
Common Errors
- Not doing enough research to make sure your logo doesn’t seem too much like a registered trademark
- Not registering for more than a class if you do have various income sources or failing to identify the proper business class
- You can trademark your logo and not your company name.
- selecting a lawyer without any trademark experience
What Does That Cost to Register a Name as a Trademark?
A business name can be trademarked for as little as $ 150 to $600 per mark class. The fee for submitting your trademark registration to the USPTO is this. Through the Trademark Digital Application System of the USPTO, trademark registration online process is the quickest and least expensive option for trademark registration (TEAS). Keep in mind that each application is limited to one trademark registration.
Applications for trademarks can be filed in several different ways*, each with a separate filing fee:
- $225 per copyright class for TEAS Plus.
- Black tea RF: $275 per class of trademarks.
- TEAS Regular: $400 for each class of trademarks.
How to Save the Cost of Trademarking
Basic trademark registration costs aren’t too expensive, but things might add up, especially if your application is more intricate.
Here are some strategies for reducing the price of trademarking a company name:
Choose State Register
Registered a trademark through your state rather than the USPTO can save money and speed up the application process. The legal protection against the others using your mark solely within the state is provided by state registration, nonetheless. You won’t have countrywide protection.
Hire a Trademark Attorney
Getting legal counsel up front, beginning with trademark research, can help you save time and money in the long run.
Hiring a Lawyer
To search to see whether the trademark you wish to register should be even accessible is frequently worthwhile. I’ve seen folks attempt to do it on their own and waste $225 in filing costs attempting to obtain a mark that they could not obtain because they lacked the skills to do a comprehensive search.
All submissions must be made online because the USPTO no longer accepts paper trademark applications. Although TEAS can require some getting used to, filing everything online can save you a tonne of money.
How Much Long Would It Take to Register a Logo?
You ought to get a serial number about six months after filing, which you may use to verify the progress of your application. The entire procedure typically lasts about six and nine months, although it may take up to three years in more complicated situations.
Conclusion
You should include an additional $500 to $2,000 to the budget to cover the costs of hiring a licensed patent attorney to help you with patent application filing, registration procedure, and filing fees.
You are accountable for upholding your trademark rights. It’s crucial to keep an eye on your trademark and take swift action if you discover any infringement.
