Does this matter? (File Trademark)?

Question

I am trying to file a trademark for my business logo but I have one question. Lets say my business name is mybusiness. For the text part of the trademark I want it to be known as mybusiness. For when you submit a picture it is mybusiness! Sort of like yahoo. Does this matter?

Answer 1

There are two primary types of marks -- words and logos.

A word mark protects any use of that name in text format -- but is independent of how it looks visually. Similar sounding words are considered when checking for conflicts, but not the visual effect.

A logo (visual) mark is the flipside -- it protects the visual aspect -- font, colors, layout -- and similar looking logos would be checked for conflict, even if the words are very different.

For example, if someone tried to register the word "Peter!" for website services -- there would be no conflict with "Yahoo!" as far as a word mark registration -- but if they tried to register that logo in bright red, with the same type font and style as the Yahoo mark, that would likely conflict as a visual (logo) mark -- even though the words are different.

On the other hand -- if someone tried to register a visual logo mark spelled "ja`hu" that was a blue spiral with the letters woven in gold sparkles -- that would not conflict as a logo (visial) mark because it looks at a glance nothing like the Yahoo logo -- even though the name might as conflict as a word mark because of it's similar sound.