A trademark application can be sought to protect the standard character mark or the design elements of the trademark. In general, you ought to seek trademark protection for the standard character mark first before you seek protection for the design elements of your trademark (i.e., design mark).
What is a design mark?
A design mark refers to the design elements of your trademark. Any artwork, font selection, colors and any other embellishments to your mark is a design mark.
What is a standard character mark?
A standard character mark refers only to the words of the trademark. It doesn’t include any of the design elements.
Should you protect the standard character mark or the design mark first?
In general, a start up should protect the standard character mark first before they attempt to protect the design elements of their trademark.
A trademark registration for the standard character mark of their trademark protects the words regardless of the design elements. So, if a competitor uses the same or similar words but changes the design elements, they are still infringing on your trademark registration.
However, a trademark registration for the design mark only protects the words along with the design elements. The competitor may not be infringing your design mark registration.
When should you protect the design mark?
A design mark should be protected when it is a crucial element of the branding for your company or product. If the design mark is replaceable, then don’t spend the money to protect the design mark if you are on a limited budget.
You have two options to protect the design elements of your design mark. First, you could file a trademark application. Second, you could seek copyright protection for the design elements.
They each protect the design elements differently. Put simply, trademark protection prevents others from using the design mark as their own trademark. Copyright protection prevents others from simply copying the design elements. You can file for your own copyright registration with www.copyright.gov.