Introduction

Entrepreneurs often face a dilemma regarding what to trademark so as to protect their product and service. Many brands have trademarked their color combination in packagings in the case of Cadbury’s, Parle-G and some have even trademarked the positioning of their labels as in the case of Levis Jeans. Today, the companies have trademarked everything ranging from the packaging, color, name, logo, sign, diagram, picture, writing to even sound and smell. Although, less than 20% of companies trademarked anything else than the brand name, logo or logo composite. So let’s have a quick glance on the difference between these three called as Word Mark, Logo Mark, and Logo Composite Mark.

Word Mark

Where a mark or identification to the product/service or company is by the use of a “word”, it is called as a word mark. New start-ups and entrepreneurs wish to register a word as the brand name or to create identification for a company.

For Example– Companies such as Reliance, Parle –G, Hero Motors have trademarked only the words/brand name, known as a word mark.

If the same word is trademarked but in the different sector, for e.g. word toy is registered trademarked underclass of cosmetics and if same is to be registered under the class of metals, then it will still be approved, provided that it is not creating confusion among the customer about its ownership issue.

But if the existing trademark is very well known and popular e.g. McDonald’s, then there is no chance the same word mark would be approved even if it belongs to unrelated class or sector.

Logo Mark

When an owner uses a logo to differentiate its product /service/company, then it is known as Logomark. Many companies such as Apple, Nike, Adidas, and Puma have registered their logo.

The reason to register logo is the wide and extensive use of this logo on their products which even aid in the advertisement, designs, as a symbol of prestige and proud. Also, they don’t need their brand name within logo as logo alone is the mark of their identification

Logo Composite Mark

Many a brand include the logo and brand together i.e. a logo contains the name of the brand, known as composite mark as in the case of Coca-Cola and BMW, Levis. Levis has more elaborate logo composite mark that even entails the positioning of it labels on the jeans.

Because of growing trend of trademark registration, many startups are left with the option to trademark their logo composite as most of the intended names are already trademarked leaving fewer options for new startups to trademark.Although, they face an trademark objection /opposition but still they get clear on the ground that they are uniquely presented and have a distinct mark.

It’s generally a bad idea to use a brand name that isn’t entirely unique, as problems could arise should your brand pose a threat to the already registered brand name.