software business trademark name
What are the benefits of trademarking a logo along with a name?
<p>I am currently trying to trademark a company name on the USPTO (The United States Patent and Trademark Office). However, I see an option to upload an image (logo) with my trademark application.</p>

<p>If I upload the logo, will the logo and name be trademarked? Can I save the cost of a trademark fee by doing them simultaneously?</p>

<p>Does doing them at the same time yield the same results as trademarking them separately? </p>

<p>Thanks </p>

<p>It is very common to register a trademark that is a combination of a distinctive name, word or phrase and a logo or other design for one filing fee. This raises the question of whether the design or the name/word may also be protected as "registered trademarks" when used separately, and the answer is no. A registered trademark is "considered as a whole" and if you want to protect parts of it, you would be required to apply separately for registration of those parts.</p>

<p>A registration of a "standard character" mark may give much broader protection for a distinctive name than if it is only registered in combination with something else. Contrarily, a valuable (recognizable) logo may be the most important element, regardless of whether the name is with it.</p>

<p>In the USA, registration of a trademark is completely optional for enforcement in state or federal courts, although registration gives additional valuable rights, including "national preemption".</p>

<p>So, in theory, one could register a combination word-mark and design and then enforce the design (alone) or the word-mark (alone) outside of the registered rights (e.g., national preemption), and even place (tm) on it, but not ® (circle R), if it is not federally registered as shown.</p>

<p>There are numerous gray areas in most aspects of trademark rules for registration, let alone enforcement, often tied to subjective evaluation of "distinctiveness" or "related fields" that may "create a likelihood of confusion" among reasonable consumers in that market.</p>
