Yes, you can copyright a logo, but only its artwork. The U.S. Copyright Office registers a logo as a work of the visual arts when it contains enough original pictorial or graphic authorship, and refuses logos made only of wording, lettering, or familiar shapes (Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office Practices, section 914.1). Protecting the name or the logo as a brand identifier is a trademark job for the USPTO.
That split trips up most business owners. This guide covers what copyright actually protects in a logo, when a logo qualifies, how the application works, who owns a logo a designer made for you, and what to do when you need both copyright and trademark. Section references below are to the Compendium, Third Edition, the Office's own examination manual.
Can you copyright a logo?
Copyright protects original works of authorship, and a logo is a pictorial or graphic work like any other illustration. Section 914.1 of the Compendium says a visual art work "used as a trademark, logo, or label may be registered if it satisfies the requisite qualifications for copyright," and the examiner will not care whether it has been, or could be, registered as a trademark. The Office looks only for "some creative authorship in its delineation or form."
The catch is that a lot of logos have very little creative authorship in the copyright sense. The same section lists what the Office "typically refuses" when a logo consists of nothing else:
- Wording. Your business name, tagline, or slogan. Words and short phrases are never copyrightable, however clever (section 313.4(C); 37 C.F.R. 202.1(a)).
- Mere scripting or lettering, with or without ornamentation, and handwritten words or signatures "regardless of how fanciful they may be." Typeface and lettering are excluded from copyright (section 313.3(D)).
- Familiar symbols and designs: letters, arrows, stars, hearts, chevrons, common icons like a play button or a smiley face, or a simple combination of a few of them (section 313.4(J)).
- Spatial placement, color, frames, borders, or font choices, alone or in combination.
The Compendium's own example is a monogram: two mirrored linked letters plus two more letters set perpendicular to them. Refused, because "letters alone cannot be registered, and there is insufficient creativity in the combination and arrangement of these elements."
So a wordmark, a monogram, or a name inside a circle usually cannot be registered. A mascot, a custom illustration, a stylized animal, or an abstract graphic with real drawing in it usually can. Everything in between is a judgment call the examiner makes when the claim comes up for review.
Copyright vs. trademark for a logo
These are two different rights from two different agencies, and a logo can carry both at once. Our copyright vs. trademark vs. patent guide covers the general split; here is how it lands on a logo:
- Copyright protects the artwork. It stops people from copying, reproducing, or adapting the design itself, on any product, in any market. It arises automatically when the design is created and is registered with the Copyright Office for a $45 or $65 government fee.
- Trademark protects source identity. It stops competitors from using a confusingly similar mark on related goods or services, and it can protect the name and slogan that copyright ignores. Trademarks are registered with the USPTO; the base application fee is $350 per class of goods or services (uspto.gov, fee schedule effective January 18, 2025), and the process runs far longer than a copyright filing.
Copyright is the cheaper, faster right, and it is the one that stops outright copying of your design. Trademark is the right that protects the brand as a brand. If someone lifts your mascot and puts it on their t-shirts, that is copyright. If someone opens a competing shop with a similar name and look, that is trademark. Many businesses eventually want both.
When a logo qualifies for copyright registration
Ask one question: if you stripped out the words, is there still an original drawing left? If yes, the logo almost certainly qualifies. Copyright's originality bar is low, a "minimal spark" of creativity independently created, but it is not zero, and the Office applies the exclusions above strictly. See what can and cannot be copyrighted for the general rules.
Two practical points from section 914.2 of the Compendium:
- Describe the art, not the function. In the application's "Author Created" field, claim "2-D artwork" or "illustration," not "logo," "mark," "trademark design," or "symbol." The Office says those vague terms may be questioned by the specialist.
- Avoid the phrases the Office flags. "Selection and arrangement," "look and feel," "distinctive," and "total concept and feel" are trademark vocabulary. They invite correspondence and delay.
If your logo is a wordmark with a small original icon, register the icon. If it is only a wordmark, copyright registration will be refused and the fee is not refunded; put that money toward the trademark instead.
How to register a logo with the Copyright Office
- Choose "Work of the Visual Arts." Logos are pictorial or graphic works, so the application is the visual arts type; the registration number will begin with VA (or VAu for unpublished works).
- Pick the right application. The $45 Single Application is only for one work by one author who is also the sole owner and did not create it as a work made for hire. A logo drawn by an employee, by a freelancer who assigned it to your company, or by two people needs the $65 Standard Application. Filing the wrong one causes "processing delays, an additional fee, and a later effective date," in the Office's words.
- Name the author and claimant correctly. The author is the person who drew it (or the company, if it was a true work made for hire). The claimant is the owner. If they differ, the application must say how the copyright was transferred.
- State publication. If you have distributed copies, on packaging, merchandise, or downloadable files, the logo is probably published and needs a publication date. Display alone is a grayer area; answer honestly and consistently.
- Upload the deposit. A clean JPG, PNG, or PDF of the logo. Do not upload the whole brand guide unless you mean to register it.
- Pay and wait. The Office reports an average of 4.1 months across all claims for cases closed October 1, 2025 through March 31, 2026, with online claims that need no correspondence averaging 3.6 months. Plan on 3 to 12 months. Your effective date is the day the Office receives a complete application, so the wait does not weaken your position.
Who owns a logo a designer made for you?
This is where logo owners get burned. Paying a freelancer or an agency for a logo does not give you the copyright. Under the work made for hire rules, a commissioned work only belongs to the hiring party if it falls into one of nine statutory categories and there is a signed written agreement saying so. A standalone logo is not one of those categories. Unless the designer was your employee acting within their job, the designer owns the copyright until they sign a written assignment transferring it to you.
That matters for registration: if you name your company as claimant without a valid transfer, the registration is inaccurate and can be challenged. Get the assignment in writing before you file, then register with the designer as author and your company as claimant "by written agreement." If you bought a logo from a marketplace or a contest site, read the terms; some transfer the copyright, some only license it.
Two more ownership traps: a logo built from stock illustrations or a template usually cannot be claimed as yours beyond your own additions, and a logo made with an AI image generator raises a separate human-authorship problem covered in our guide to registering AI-assisted works.
What to do if you need both copyright and trademark
File the copyright first. It is cheaper, it is faster, and it does not depend on how the logo is used in commerce. Then pursue the trademark for the name and the mark once you are using them on real goods or services. The two applications do not conflict, and section 914.1 says the Copyright Office will not consider the trademark status either way.
Keep the symbols straight while you wait: the copyright notice (the c-in-a-circle, year, and owner) needs no permission and no registration; the TM symbol simply asserts a trademark claim; the R-in-a-circle may only be used after the USPTO actually registers the mark. We are a copyright filing service, not a law firm and not a trademark filer, so for a contested brand dispute talk to an intellectual property attorney.
What registering your logo actually gets you
Registration is what makes the copyright in your logo enforceable. Without it you cannot file an infringement suit in federal court, and if you register before an infringement starts (or within three months of first publication) you become eligible for statutory damages of $750 to $30,000 per work, up to $150,000 for willful infringement, plus attorney's fees. You also get a dated public record of the design and, if you register within five years of publication, a certificate that counts as prima facie evidence of a valid copyright.
If you would rather not work out the application type, the authorship wording, and the claimant chain yourself, our single-work registration is $149 with the $65 government fee included, filed within 2-3 business days.
Ready to register? FastCopyrightFiling.com prepares and files your copyright registration with the U.S. Copyright Office, government fees included, and files within 2-3 business days. Start your registration or see pricing.