In most cases, we recommend not claiming color unless the particular color or color combination is an important and distinctive feature of your trademark.

When color is claimed, the specific colors become part of the registered trademark. This can narrow the scope and flexibility of your protection because your registration covers the logo as shown with the claimed colors.

If color is not claimed as a feature of the trademark, the registration is generally more flexible because protection is not tied to one particular color combination.

When should I claim color?

A color claim may make sense when:

• the particular color or color combination is an important part of your branding;
• customers strongly associate those colors with your brand; or
• color itself contributes significantly to the distinctiveness of the trademark.

Otherwise, we generally prefer not to limit a logo registration to particular colors.

Should I register my word mark or my logo first?

If your trademark consists of a distinctive name or wording, we generally recommend protecting the word mark in standard characters first.

A standard-character word mark protects the wording itself without limiting the registration to a particular font, style, size, or logo design.

A separate logo application can then be considered, particularly when the design elements of the logo are important to the brand. If the budget permits, the word mark and logo may also be filed at the same time.

A color version of the logo may be worth protecting separately when the colors themselves are an important feature of the brand.

What’s the bottom line?

For most businesses:

1. Protect the word mark first.
2. Consider protecting the logo separately.
3. Claim specific colors only when those colors are an important feature of the brand.

Unless color is an essential part of your trademark, we generally recommend not claiming color as a feature of the mark.

Read our article for a full discussion about color claims.