What are the steps involved in trademarking a logo?

We all know the importance of trademark registration as a crucial step for protecting your brand identity. But what are some of the steps that you need to take in order to successfully register your trademark, especially when it comes to logos?

First of all, you need to conduct a little research in order to see if another company already uses a registered logo that is too similar to yours. That can be done searching your country’s and state’s databases but also a search in internet is helpful as it gives easier and quicker access to a lot of information. This is a crucial step and failing here means you have to start over the application process as well as the logo creation process.

Further step is the actual registration in the trademark office, in USA this is done in the USPTO. This is not an easy part as everything you have to do in this case is waiting. Here, either they will decide that the logo is meets the requirements, or they reject it giving the issues encountered while leaving you the proper time to respond and address these issues. if not then the application will be fully rejected after sometimes another notice from USPTO.

Up until this moment you are allowed to use the symbols TM for trademark or SM for a service. At the moment you receive notice that your trademark has been registered you are finally legally allowed to use the R-registered symbol.