We’re pros at building brands for new businesses and overhauling existing ones. But we’ll admit that we’re not experts at everything. Once the design is finished, our clients want to know what’s next.

How can they safeguard their brand and prevent another company or individual from misusing it?

Since we’re not legal experts, we can’t offer any legal advice. To protect the elements of your brand (i.e., name, tagline, logo, etc.), we defer to attorneys who know the ins and outs of trademark and copyright law.

And we happen to know one who does exactly that.

Catherine Tang is a trademark and internet law attorney specializing in copyrights, privacy policies, disclaimers, influencer agreements, etc. for businesses. With a background in business and marketing, who better to answer a few questions we often get from clients about protecting their brand.

Are there any issues with visually applying a ™ to the logo or tagline without actually trademarking the logo legally?

Great question. There are actually NO rules governing the use of the TM symbol; you can use it whenever you want. But…that means that it really has no meaning or legal protection. What you really want is the circle R or ® symbol. The ® symbol means that you have a registered trademark with the USPTO, and you may ONLY use it if you have a registered trademark. It gives actual notice to people that you own your mark, and that comes in handy later if a lawsuit is necessary.

Catherine also created a video, which detailing the differences between the ™ and ® symbols.

Is the process of a ™ or ® being dissolved back into the free market for another person/company to get when the owner doesn’t pay to renew it after a certain time?

In the US, there are actually two requirements to keeping ownership of your trademark, and that is to check in with the USPTO every so often after attaining your mark (between the 5th and 6th anniversary of getting your mark, then the 10th anniversary and every 10 years after that…) AND you have to show that you’re still using your mark in commerce. If either of those requirements are not met, then you can lose your mark.

Should a company wait until they are a certain size or has more competitors before trademarking their logo/brand?

That is a matter of budget and risk tolerance. Big companies trademark their brands before even getting started because they know the risk of building a brand without owning it… I’ve seen small companies wait until they’ve built a brand first then try to trademark only to find out someone else owns that mark, and now they have to rebrand their entire company. How risk-tolerant are you? What you might save in fees right now might cost you hundreds of thousands later, or your entire brand.

When should you trademark the different parts of the logo (icon, tagline, name, etc.)?

If costs are an issue, then I would trademark the name first. There is no use to owning a logo without owning the words accompanying it. After that, then it depends on what you’re using more to associate with your brand, the logo, a slogan, or something else? Also, some things like a slogan are only used for a short time then subsequently changed along with the marketing campaign. For those kinds of things, it might not be worth trademarking, especially since the trademark process itself can take a while.

How much of your brand (logos, taglines, branded headlines, product names, images) should you actually trademark?

As much as you can afford to (or what you can’t afford not to).

Catherine is currently accepting new clients. You can schedule a consultation with her or follow her on LinkedIn or Instagram at @americanattorney. There she shares information about trademark and copyright law along with gorgeous photography of her global travels.

And because Catherine is fantastic, she’s also offering a 15% discount on attorney’s fees during 2020 when new clients mention KEYLAY.