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How to Trademark and Copyright Your Blog’s Name & Logo

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Do you want to trademark and copyright your blog’s name and logo?

Trademark and copyright protect your brand and business against many legal challenges. These include illegally using your copyrighted material or your brand’s name and logo.

In this article, we will show you how to trademark and copyright your blog’s name and logo to protect your business.

Trademark and copyright WordPress blog's name and logo

Note: Nothing in this article should be considered legal advice. For any matter of clarification, please consult an attorney.

Why Should You Trademark and Copyright Your Blog Name and Logo?

Registering a trademark is not mandatory to make a business website in the United States. If you run a small personal blog or business website and do not have plans to grow it further, then your creative works are already protected by copyright.

On the other hand, if you are doing business across states and plan to grow further, then it becomes essential to register your trademark and copyright.

Registering your trademark and copyright allows you to stop others from using the same or similar business name. You can get exclusive rights to use your trademark for business.

It also makes you responsible for enforcing the trademark. If you find someone infringing your rights, you need to send them a cease and desist letter and take further legal action if necessary.

What Is the Difference Between Trademark and Copyright?

Copyright and trademark protect intellectual property rights, so people often confuse the two terms.

What Is Copyright?

Copyright applies to creative works, including written words, text, images, illustrations, artwork, and more. As soon as a work is put in a tangible form, it is protected by the copyright laws.

In easier terms, all original content of your WordPress website is protected by copyright laws without you doing anything extra.

What Is a Trademark?

Trademarks, on the other hand, are word marks, business names, symbols, sounds, or colors that distinguish goods and services from those manufactured or sold by others and indicate the source of the goods.

A government body responsible for registering patents and trademarks in your jurisdiction can register a trademark.

In plain words, this can be your business name, logo, brand mascot, or product name. However, you cannot register your own name as a personal brand unless it is truly unique and widely recognized, such as Marks & Spencer, Johnsons & Johnsons, or Calvin Klein.

It is important to remember that copyright doesn’t give your business or logo the same protections offered by a registered trademark. For example, some part or all of your copyrighted work can be used under the ‘Fair Use’ principle.

Registered trademarks cannot be used, allowing you to protect your brand against impostors using similar names to mislead your potential customers.

If you have already registered as a business in your state, then this doesn’t automatically protect your business name as a trademark. In fact, someone can register the same or similar name as a trademark and potentially stop you from using it.

How to Apply for a Trademark

First, you need to understand what you can submit as a trademark in your application.

  • You cannot submit a name that someone else is already using as their trademark.
  • Your name cannot be too similar to an existing trademark.
  • It needs to be unique and not too generic.

Next, you need to thoroughly search for the existing trademarks using the Trademark Electronic Search System or TESS on the United States Patent and Trademark Office website.

Search trademark

This step is really important as it can save you money in case someone else has already registered or applied for the same trademark.

You can search for word mark, word or design mark, or use advanced search for free form combinations.

Using trademark search tools on TESS

If the trademark is not registered, then you can go ahead and apply for it by visiting Trademark Electronic Application System or TEAS, which is available on the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) website.

There are three different application forms available with different fees. You will also find the information for which form to choose for your application on the page.

The application forms are quite detailed, and you need to fill in all the required fields.

Once you submit the application form, you will receive an email confirmation. After that, you need to wait for approval.

Filing a trademark application is a legal process that needs to be handled carefully. We recommend hiring a lawyer to help you apply for the trademark.

You can also use online legal service providers like CorpNet or LegalZoom, which provide legal services to small businesses and individuals at a low cost.

How to Copyright Your Blog’s Logo

As we mentioned earlier, all creative works are automatically protected by copyright laws as soon as they are put in a tangible form. However, registering your copyright will help you add an extra layer of protection on top of your copyright.

Depending on where you are located, you can usually find where and how to apply for copyright in your region online. The process will be different depending on your country’s laws and procedures.

If you are located in the United States, then you can apply for copyright by visiting the United States Copyright Office website.

You will first need to find the appropriate category for your creative work. For example, if you are applying to copyright your logo, then you will click on the visual arts section. For blog content, you will need to visit the ‘Other digital content’ category.

Types of works that can be copyrighted

You can download the application form with instructions in different formats on the next page.

You can also apply for copyright registration online. You will have to provide copies of the work you are trying to protect. For example, in the case of a logo, you can provide hi-res images.

Once you have applied for the copyright, it can take a long time before you hear back from the copyright office, depending on the number of applications they have.

If you find the process complicated, you can use services like CorpNet or LegalZoom, which offer low-cost legal services for small businesses and individuals.

Enforcing Your Trademark and Copyright

Once you have registered your trademark or copyright, you are responsible for protecting it against infringement. Even though the USPTO office will not allow anyone to register the same or similar trademark, people can still use it without registering.

The first step in protecting your trademarks and copyright is to indicate your registered trademarks and copyright protection on your website.

Show copyright information

The Trademark and Copyright symbols let others know they cannot use your protected properties for business.

If someone has stolen your blog content or logo, you can send them a cease and desist letter asking them to remove the content.

You can also file a DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) complaint with their hosting provider and search engines like Google to take down the stolen content.

We have also created a complete guide on preventing blog content scraping in WordPress.

If a business or blog starts using your registered or pending registration trademark, you can send them a cease and desist notice, too. You can also start legal proceedings to take further action if necessary.

We hope this article helped you learn how to trademark and copyright your blog’s name and logo. You may also want to see our guide on making money online and our expert picks for the must-have WordPress plugins to grow your website.

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Editorial Staff

Editorial Staff at WPBeginner is a team of WordPress experts led by Syed Balkhi with over 16 years of experience in WordPress, Web Hosting, eCommerce, SEO, and Marketing. Started in 2009, WPBeginner is now the largest free WordPress resource site in the industry and is often referred to as the Wikipedia for WordPress.

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Reader Interactions

16 CommentsLeave a Reply

  1. Syed Balkhi says

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  2. sapna says

    Great Article.Thnks for sharing .I have been searching for such an informative post since many days and it seems my search jst ended here.Good work.Keep posting

  3. devahk says

    Nice and helpful guide. It is really important to register your trademark to avoid future conflicts.

  4. Erin McMullen says

    Thank you for the post. It is really important to register your trademark to avoid future conflicts.

  5. Shivani says

    Nice and helpful guide. Thank you for this and keep posting these kinds of posts in the future.

  6. Daniel Jameson says

    Every element of your brand can be trademarkable. Original works” of architecture, audio-visual, choreography, drama, graphics/pictures, literature, music and sculpture, as well as sound recordings, software, and even your business website is subject to copyright.

  7. Somsri says

    Thank you so much, your blog post just shown a path to deal with my imposters.

    If possible please write some articles on website takedown also, that will be very helpful for some victims like me.

    I have seen lots of google blogger users do this. So it could be helpful for us to take them down.

    Regards

  8. Chris says

    Its also fair to mention that initiating legal proceedings may cost you at least 5k so choose your battles and if you lose it may cost a lot more.

    • Hossain Ahmad says

      Exactly what i was thinking. What will be the process of non-US website owner?

      Thank you.

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