Trademark vs copyright for a logo
By BlockchainSignLast updated
A logo is the one asset where copyright and trademark genuinely overlap — and where the overlap confuses almost everyone. Copyright covers the artwork. Trademark covers the logo doing its job as a brand. Most real logos need to think about both.
Key takeaways
- Copyright protects the logo as an original artistic work — but only if there is enough artistry. A brand name typed in an off-the-shelf font gets nothing.
- Trademark protects the logo as an indicator of who makes the product. This is what stops a competitor using a confusingly similar mark.
- For a designed logo, both usually apply, and they protect against different things.
The short answer
Copyright protects the drawing. Trademark protects the brand.
If someone reproduces your logo on a poster, that is a copyright question. If someone uses a similar logo to sell competing products and confuse your customers, that is a trademark question. They are separate rights, obtained differently, and you can hold both at once.
What copyright covers
Copyright attaches automatically the moment the logo is created in a fixed form, and it covers the original artistic expression: the illustration, the arrangement of shapes, the stylised elements.
The limit that surprises people: copyright does not protect words, names, short phrases, or simple geometric shapes. A wordmark set in an existing typeface has no copyrightable authorship at all — there is nothing original about typing a name. A circle, a triangle, a plain square: none of these qualify. The artistry has to come from somewhere.
Copyright in a logo lasts the author's life plus 70 years, or 95 years from publication for a work made for hire. Registration with the U.S. Copyright Office costs roughly $45–$65 and is required before you can sue in the US.
What trademark covers
A trademark protects a sign that identifies the source of goods or services. Your logo qualifies the moment you use it in commerce, which gives you common-law rights in the area where you trade. Federal registration with the USPTO extends that nationwide.
Registration costs $350 per class as a base fee, with surcharges — $100 per class for incomplete information, $200 per class for describing your goods in free-form text rather than using the USPTO's pre-approved identifications. Trademark rights last indefinitely provided you keep using the mark and file the maintenance declarations.
Crucially, trademark protection is tied to what you sell. Registering a logo for software does not stop someone using a similar logo on garden furniture.
Side by side
| Copyright | Trademark | |
|---|---|---|
| Protects | The artwork itself | The logo as a brand signal |
| Arises | Automatically on creation | On use in commerce |
| Requires artistry | Yes | No |
| A plain wordmark | Not protected | Protected |
| Tied to a product category | No | Yes |
| Duration | Life + 70 years | Indefinite, with renewals |
| Registration cost (US) | ~$45–$65 | $350 per class, plus surcharges |
| Stops a poster reproduction | Yes | Usually not |
| Stops a confusing competitor | Rarely | Yes |
Use both, and know who owns what
For a designed logo the sensible position is copyright in the artwork plus trademark registration for the classes you actually trade in.
One thing to check before either: if a designer or agency made the logo, they may own the copyright. In the US, work by an independent contractor is not automatically a work made for hire — you need a written assignment. Plenty of businesses have registered a trademark on a logo whose copyright still sits with the freelancer who drew it.
Where a timestamp fits
Neither right depends on a timestamp, and any service telling you otherwise is overselling. What a timestamp gives you is a dated, tamper-evident record of the logo files as they existed on a specific day.
That matters for logos specifically because the disputes are usually about who had it first — a designer and a client disagreeing about a rejected concept, or two businesses that landed on similar marks independently. Registration establishes your rights from the filing date; a timestamp of the working files can establish that you had the design months earlier.
It proves existence, not authorship. See proof of existence vs proof of authorship for exactly where that line sits, and how to timestamp design files for the practical side.
US law. Copyright and trademark work broadly similarly in most countries, but the specifics — especially registration requirements — differ. This is general information, not legal advice.