As a business owner, protecting your brand identity and your intellectual property is a paramount concern. Most small business owners are unfamiliar with trademark law and how it applies to businesses and their intellectual property, so you might not know when it is appropriate to trademark your business name.
If you are considering trademark protection, understand the basics first.
What style of trademark protection do you want?
The first thing you need to decide is what style of trademark protection you want for your business name. A design mark is ideal when you want to protect a specific variation of your company’s name, such as in a particular font, design or graphical presentation. If you choose this approach, opt for a black-and-white version with variations so that you have authority over any color scheme of that logo.
A character mark, on the other hand, provides broad protection for any variation at all of your company’s name. Whether it is in standard font form or a graphical representation, a character ark covers it.
Are you protecting your company name or company logo?
Choosing a character mark or design mark is as simple as choosing whether you want to protect your company name as a whole or just the company logo. The company logo would only need a design mark. Protecting your company name, on the other hand, needs a character mark.
Protect your intellectual property and the integrity of your business in the industry with the right trademark protection. This helps you choose the right solution for your trademark application.