Dijon Marketing’s logo is now federally registered with the US Patent and Trademark Office. It is protected against anyone else using it. While this might seem like overkill for a small brand, it was an interesting challenge that I wanted to work through in case future clients had need of such protection.

The first step is to fill out the paperwork and pay the fees associated. You can register under multiple different uses for free, but each category of use will cost you an additional fee. Dijon Marketing is registered for graphic design, web design, web hosting, and digital marketing. That spanned two different categories and raised the price a bit.

Be aware that as soon as you file, that is public information. Your inbox and mailbox will soon be flooded with offers from law offices to help you navigate the registration process. Chances are you won’t need any help, but if you do, try to find someone who did not solicit your business from your public listing.

There’s a good chance your original request will be rejected. You will have to provide further clarification on your submission. I had to explicitly state that I was not attempting to trademark the word “Marketing” by itself, and also that the color of the logo was not part of the trademark.

Then all it really takes is time. Start to finish, I spent about 8 months total waiting for the certificate to come in the mail. It may not make sense, or be in any way necessary for your organization to trademark your logo, but if it ever does, having been through it once, I feel confident I could give some good advice to help you on your way.