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Does logo registration offer any benefits over word trademark registration?

Written by Jan Buza

Co-founder of Trama

Compared to wordmarks, logos offer some benefits, but also some drawbacks.

A figurative mark protects the visual design itself, which a wordmark does not. If a competitor copies your logo or uses a confusingly similar visual identity without using your name, a figurative mark gives you grounds to act; a wordmark alone would not.

Figurative marks can also be easier to register when the name element is descriptive because the visual elements add distinctiveness to the overall mark. In this way, a logo incorporating a distinctive graphic alongside a descriptive name may pass examination where the name alone would be refused.

The drawbacks are that a figurative mark does not protect the name in all visual representations, and protection can be lost or weakened if the logo is significantly redesigned.

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