Trademark Question

[albertramsbottom]

Hi

We have been running our business for few years now and have the domain name which is the same as the trademark we are think of applying for. We are a little confused by the two options on .gov.uk. One is the word mark and the other is the "Its consists of letters or numbers in a particular font or colour"

Now we want to protect the words as well as the logo or font used in the logo. It is two words and on the logo they are in upper case. Should we protect the words in lower and uppercase and then think about the logo, with the words and font styling in it. We have used an open source font for the words in the logo

Cheers guys
PS I have read about combination registrations but cant find these on .gov.uk so I can only assume that the second option is the combination registration, ie. words and logo in a particular style

 

[albertramsbottom]

The other thing is that on the logo the two words are joined together and appear not to have space. Which means I might have to register the two words as separate words and the words as one

 

[BigPhill]

We have used an open source font for the words in the logo

You'll need to read any documentation / agreements with the open source font - i would suspect most will discourage the ability to use the font as part of a trademark. This will 'most likely' be seen as commercial use - thus a fee may be payable for the rights.

Generally when it comes to trademarks, it's normally better to trademark the word(s) as text first, before a logo (unless the logo is really distinctive - such as Nike for example).

 

[albertramsbottom]

Thanks for that, As for the font its a Google one so I dont think there will be any issues there. I think we need the text mark, if we can get them. Perhaps our words are a little common. It might be the fact that the two words together might be accepted but perhaps as separate words they might not. Will will try and also apply for the logo at the same time. As I said before the logo has words and symbols

Thanks

 

[obscure]

You'll need to read any documentation / agreements with the open source font - i would suspect most will discourage the ability to use the font as part of a trademark. This will 'most likely' be seen as commercial use - thus a fee may be payable for the rights.

This is a common mistake that a lot of people make, because they confuse Fonts and Typefaces. Actually the opposite is generally true.

Font vs Typeface.
When you read a license agreement that comes with a font it often states that a font can't be used commercially or resold. This causes confusion because many people conflate fonts and typefaces and assume the license means that they can't use a typeface commercially.

Fonts are the computer code you download and install on your computer. The font/code tells the computer what type should look like - the styling of the characters. The output from the font is the typeface... the letters that you see.

You generally aren't allowed to resell the font (code) or include it in a piece of commercial software such as an app without an appropriate commercial license. However the Typeface can be used commercially. I can install a font on my computer and then use a word processor, which makes use of that font, to write a book which I then sell commercially. The book features the Typeface that the font created but it doesn't include the actual font code.

Of course there are exceptions to the above. Every font creator can choose their own licensing terms and some don't allow the use of the typeface their font creates for Logos/trademarks (logotype). For this reason you should always check the license of the font you intend to use.

 

[dotcomdude]

Now we want to protect the words as well as the logo or font used in the logo.

You could submit two trademark applications - one for the word mark and another for the logo - but this is probably overkill.

A successful registration for the wordmark would give you certain rights to challenge any subsequent trademark application that included your word/phrase - whether that new application was for a wordmark or a design/logo.