BARQ & A

Posted By: JES

We are considering applying for a trademark for our tagline. I was doing some research on this and the question was raised about whether to register our logo as well. Do you have any experience with this? How do companies determine whether to register their name/logo/tagline?

BARQ’s response:

Protection of intellectual property is an important part of marketing and a key component of your brand’s value. The purpose for registering your name, brand, tagline or logo is not just to protect your brand in the future, but also to prevent you from inadvertently investing in something that may already be registered. That could be costly if another brand challenges your use of it on collateral, signage, website, etc.

Your company can register a logo/symbol/avatar or a name as long as it is unique for the category. Taglines as well can be registered, as long as they are not common phrases. For instance, we have registered SELMARQ® (the name), the SELMARQ logo (a Labrador Retriever in a circle), and “SELMARQ Brands’ Best Friend®” (our name with our tagline). We could not register “Brands’ Best Friend” alone due to the generic nature of that combination of words. But adding SELMARQ made it unique.

These are all registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (www.uspto.gov) for specific categories (marketing, web design, etc.) according to how we wish to defend against others who might try to appropriate them.

Typically you’d use TM (for products, SM for services) to indicate it is something you intend the consumer to identify with your company or brand. That will change to the ® once your registration has been approved.

BARQ
SELMARQ Brands’ Best Friend