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The Zest

Word Mark or Logo: Which Should You File First?

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"I have a name and a logo. Which one do I trademark?" For most small businesses, the answer is the name first, filed as a word mark. A word mark covers the name itself in any font, size or color, so it follows your brand through every redesign. A logo filing protects one specific design, and it makes sense as a second step once that design is settled and doing real work for you.

Here's the difference, and how to decide what goes first.

Two kinds of drawings

Every trademark application includes a drawing of the mark, and the rules allow two types. A standard character drawing is just the words, typed out, with no claim to any particular font style, size or color. That's what people mean by a word mark. A special form drawing shows the mark exactly as it looks: the custom lettering, the icon, the colors if you claim them. That's a logo, or design mark.

Each application gets one drawing, and the USPTO's guidance is that you can't choose both types for the same mark. So if you want the name and the logo both covered, that's two applications.

What a word mark protects

The USPTO calls a standard character registration the broadest form of protection, because it covers the wording itself rather than a picture of it. The examination manual puts it plainly: a registrant "is entitled to all depictions of a standard character mark regardless of the font style, size, or color."

That has two practical effects. First, the registration doesn't go stale when you redesign. New font, new colors, a new icon next to it: the name is still the name, and the registration still covers it. Second, it's harder for someone to slide a similar name past you by dressing it up. The manual says an applicant can't avoid a conflict with a standard character registration just by presenting its own mark in a special style, because the registered owner is free to display its name in that same style.

What a logo filing protects

A special form registration protects "the particular depiction you provided," in the USPTO's words. If your logo is the name in a custom script with a little sun over the i, the registration covers that combination as it appears in the drawing. Change the script, drop the sun, and you're drifting away from what you registered.

You also can't rework a logo once the application is on file. The rules bar amendments that materially alter the mark, and the test is whether the change is big enough that the mark would have to be published again so others could fairly oppose it. Adding or deleting a significant word or design element usually crosses that line. The USPTO generally accepts small changes, like deleting a TM symbol or changing a black-and-white drawing to specific colors. A real redesign means a new application.

Color is a choice you make at filing. If the drawing is in color, you have to claim color as a feature of the mark, list the colors, and describe where each one appears. The registration then covers the logo as drawn, in those colors.

Why the name usually goes first

Budget decides a lot of this. The USPTO's own guidance notes that companies with bigger budgets may register the name, a slogan and the logo separately, and that a business that can afford one registration might focus on the piece it uses most. For most small businesses, that's the name. It's on the website, the invoices, the packaging and the social handles, and it's what customers say out loud when they recommend you.

The name is also usually the more stable asset. Logos get refreshed as a business grows up. A word mark filed today still fits the brand after the refresh, while a logo registration covers the version you had on filing day.

The word mark does need a name that can be registered on its own. If the name mostly describes what you sell, a word mark application can be refused as merely descriptive, and typing it in a different font won't change that. It's worth knowing where your name falls before you file anything, which is what the difference between strong and weak names is about.

When a logo filing makes sense

There are real reasons to file the logo, and sometimes to file it first.

The icon stands on its own. If the symbol shows up without the name, on a hang tag, an app icon, an embroidered patch or a favicon, only a design filing covers that image. A word mark doesn't protect a picture.

The design is settled. If the logo has been through its revisions and you plan to keep it for years, a registration for it is worth more than one for a logo you'll replace next spring.

The words are weak. A logo with distinctive design elements can sometimes register even when the wording in it couldn't register alone. The catch is that the USPTO can require you to disclaim the unregistrable words, and a disclaimer is a statement that you don't claim the exclusive right to use them on their own. The registration protects the composite, the look, rather than the name.

Whatever the order, own the design before you file it. The copyright in a logo drawn by a freelancer stays with the freelancer until it's transferred to you in a signed writing, which is the subject of who owns your logo when a contractor made it.

What each filing costs

Under the fee schedule that took effect January 18, 2025, the base application fee is $350 per class, per application. The word mark and the logo are separate applications, so covering both in one class costs $700 in base fees, before any surcharges. Those run $100 per class if the application is missing required information, $200 per class if you write your own description of goods and services instead of using the USPTO's pre-approved list, and another $200 per class for each additional 1,000 characters in that description.

Every registration also carries its own maintenance filings down the road, so two registrations mean two sets of deadlines. Before spending on either, a clearance search is how you find out whether the name is free to build on.

If you're weighing the name against the logo for your own brand, you can see how the search and filing packages work on the services page, and the FAQs page answers most of what comes up before a first call.

Book a free 15-minute discovery call with the attorney (opens in a new tab)

(No legal advice is given on the discovery call. It's a chance to tell me what you're building and hear how the process works.)

Sources

This article is general information, not legal advice. Reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.

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