Scenario
You’re a start-up company and you are running on a tight budget. You understand the importance of branding so one of the first things you do is hire a graphics company to create a logo for your business. A couple of years later, you are finally ready to begin your first large-scale marketing campaign, including print and billboards. You go out and hire a graphics designer to aid in this campaign. The first thing that your new graphics designer requests is your logo in vector format. You go through all of your correspondence with your original logo designer and can only find the logo in .jpg format. You call the logo designer and find out that they are no longer in business. Now your new graphics designer needs to recreate your logo in vector format which takes time and adds additional costs.
Another scenario that can hold up your marketing campaign and end up costing you a lot of money is licensing of the logo. There are some design shops that not only retain copyright, but license their identity packages to clients for specific usage. If the client decides to expand and put their logo on billboards, for example, the client has to pay for additional usage. In this case, you will need to spend more money for something that should rightfully be yours.
What You Should Do
When hiring a graphics firm for your logo design, there are several things that you should do. The first is to sign a contract that dictates that you own the copyright to your logo. This will eliminate any ownership differences in the future and will allow you to trademark your logo. You should also demand that you receive the logo in vector format (in addition to .jpg) which will allow you to manipulate the image for various marketing campaigns. If you receive the file in .jpg or Photoshop, you are pretty much stuck with the size and quality. To help your internal staff and future outsource resources, you should also request that they save files in a uniform format that all users can open (.jpg, .gif, etc.), standardize file names, and include date or version codes.
Trademarking Your Branding
Trademarking your logo design, as well as your business and product’s name and slogans, is one of the most important business decisions you can make. Logo design trademark holders have the ability to prevent their competitors and other third parties from using their registered trademark without permission. A logo design trademark is essential for all companies that profit from product name or business name recognition. Companies who fail to register their logo design trademark, or companies currently conducting business using an unregistered logo design trademark, run the risk of losing some or all of their rights to continue to use their logo design. This normally occurs when a competitor or unrelated third party trademarks a mark that is the same or substantially similar to an existing mark. Few companies have the financial strength to overcome the full or partial loss of their right to use their own business name, product names, logo designs and slogans.
The greatest expense of a trademark is the lack of it. The federal trademark registration process is relatively straightforward. A trademark may be filed at the state, federal or international level. Trademark filings at the state level generally cost less than those filed at the federal or international levels. Thankfully, one does not have to incur the expense of unusually high hourly attorneys’ fees to simply register a trademark. Once a trademark search has been performed and you have determined that your mark is available, the next step is to prepare and file the trademark application.
Moral of the Story
When you have your logo created:
- Get the original vector files
- Check your licensing agreement
- Trademark your branding
You can always contact Peacock Production Studios and we will help you establish your brand correctly.
E-mail: info@peacockproductionstudios.com
Website: http://peacockproductionstudios.com
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