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Does a logo trademark protect all of its individual elements?

Written by Jan Buza

Co-founder of Trama

Not automatically. A logo trademark protects the mark as a whole. Individual elements within the logo are protected to the extent that they are distinctive and dominant enough to form a significant part of the overall impression.

For example, a unique, custom icon that is the defining visual feature of the logo will be protected, and a competitor who copies only that icon is likely to be considered to infringe. Whereas a generic shape, common color, or descriptive word that happens to appear in the logo carries no independent protection because it lacks distinctiveness in isolation.

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