#MOVIE PRODUCTION COMPANY LOGOS REGISTRATION#

With a registered trademark, the law presumes you are the owner and that your trademark is valid throughout the United States. Without a registration, you have the legal burden of proving that you own the trademark in the first place, you used it before they did, and that the marks are likely to be confused.

#MOVIE PRODUCTION COMPANY LOGOS REGISTRATION#

Contact our experienced attorneys!įirst, a trademark registration gives you legal protection in the form of “presumptions.” Imagine a competitor is “inspired” by your logo and you bring legal claims against them. Gerben IP has registered over 5,500+ trademarks. However, there are some basic universal truths to trademark registrations. There are countless different filing strategies when it comes to protecting trademarks and the approach will change depending on the needs and budget of each trademark owner. Why Should I Register by Production Logo?

If sounds and animations by themselves qualify for trademark protection, it makes sense that production logos, which typically combine sound, animation, and logos into one also qualify for trademark protection. These are trademarks and, if another company began using a similar sound for their own production logo, the original brand will likely suffer.

Sounds, animations, movements, even smells can be trademarks for specific companies.įor example, as mentioned above, the simple roaring of a lion is (to many) instantly recognizable as belonging to MGM studios.Ī more recent example, for anyone who has ever binge-watched a JJ Abrams series, like Lost, has heard a child saying “Bad Robot” over and over for Abrams’ production company, Bad Robot. However, trademarks can be almost anything that identifies a company. Aren’t Trademarks Just Words or Phrases?Įven sophisticated businesses miss chances to protect trademarks because we are used to thinking of trademarks as brand names or logos found on packaging, or on advertisements. Failure to properly protect those short animations could be a missed opportunity within the industry. An effective production logo catches the viewer’s attention for a brief second, but then acts as a stand-in for the company itself in the future. For production companies that are smaller or just starting, it is a critical moment to alert those watching (both the consumer and advertisers, future writers, actors, etc.) as to your company’s skillset, general knowledge, and overall quality. As you can see, these are widely used and some of them are instantly recognizable to most viewers.

Movie production company logos