A brand usually means much more than just the name for a creative business. It can be a unique typeface, a logo design, a stylized word mark, and combinations of various visual elements. For typography studios, it is especially important since a specific typeface can become the key element of the brand’s identity over time.
Trademark registration is one of the key steps towards brand protection, but what kind of protection is needed? When filing a trademark registration application, a company will need to decide whether it wants to protect the wording or the design or both. Understanding the key differences between word mark and design mark can help to choose the right strategy.
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If a business wants to protect only the textual element of a brand rather than the specific design, it should consider filing a word mark.
When a company registers a distinctive name as a word mark, the trademark protection will not necessarily depend on the font, color, layout, or logo. Thus, the company can change the visual presentation in the future without having to register another trademark.
Let us imagine that the font studio registers the distinctive name of its brand. Now, the studio uses a serif font to present the brand name on the website. In the future, the studio decides to change the font to a clean sans serif. Having the word mark, the studio can update the brand name presentation without filing another trademark application.
However, it is worth noting that not all words can be used as distinctive trademarks.
A design mark is a trademark protection of the visual appearance of the brand – a logo, graphic symbol, stylized lettering, or other artwork. As it can be seen, the design itself is the key element of trademark protection in this case.
For instance, a company may have an emblem together with the name. If consumers identify the emblem as the identifier of the products or services offered by the company, then the visual aspect of the trademark will have legal significance.
It is especially important for creative businesses. The designer may come up with a unique logo, monogram or visual brand identity. Such a visual design can be presented at previews of fonts, product pages, packaging, and on social media. Thus, in some cases, the designers may want to trademark a design rather than relying solely on protection for the name.
Nevertheless, creating a visually interesting design alone cannot be considered a trademark. It must have a functional purpose and it must meet the requirements of the trademark protection in the relevant jurisdiction.
The easiest way to distinguish between the two types is the following. The word mark protects the brand name. At the same time, a design mark protects the design of the brand (in this case, the logo).
Suppose that we are dealing with the fictitious font studio named “Letterloom.” In case the studio wants to get a protection for its name and applies for the LETTERLOOM word mark, it will be focused on the distinct wording. However, Letterloom can also have a distinctive woven-letter logo. If it applies for its protection as a design mark, its protection will cover visual identity presented in the application.
The mentioned types of protection do not necessarily compete but rather can complement each other.
The design of a business identity can also evolve through the time. Logos, typography, colors and other branding assets of companies are constantly being reworked as companies grow. In such cases, the protection of a logo as a design mark may lose some of its coverage after a redesign. Therefore, a word mark can serve as a way to achieve continuity when the brand name remains the same.
For already known brands, it might be worthwhile to consider protecting both the name and logo separately. In such a case, each component will be registered as a unique trademark. Consequently, you will get broader legal protection.
In the case of the font studio, for example, you use the word element in plain text in invoices and on the web page of your website, and the logo appears in font previews, promotional graphics, and social media pages. It might make sense to protect the brand differently according to your priorities, budget, and target markets.
There is no general recommendation that requires filing both applications. In this regard, your business needs to understand what kind of trademark protection is more convenient depending on how the sign is used, distinctiveness of its elements, geographic regions in which your business operates, and value of the brand.
Before filing a trademark application, you need to check whether there is any conflict in trademarks already protected and whether your mark might clash with them.
This is particularly relevant for international businesses marketing their innovative products. A business that goes online can have customers from several countries but the trademark rights are territorial in nature. If a trademark is created in one country, it doesn’t mean that there will be similar rights around the world.
A trademark search conducted correctly will be able to uncover possible conflicts in advance. As a result, it saves money and efforts on branding and registration of trademark.
For font studios and other similar companies, the issues of protecting intellectual property should also be included into the creative process itself. The typeface could be protected with the help of copyright and license while the trademark could be associated with the name under which the product is sold. Both approaches serve different functions within the company.
One way of doing this would be to determine what people connect with the brand, which could include its name, logo, product names, or unique visuals, and then decide which type of registration is likely to provide more benefit, either a word mark, design mark, or both.
This is because it may take many years to create a strong brand identity. Once created, protecting it is equally important.
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