Answer

Should I register the words, the logo, or both?

Lawyers call this: standard character and special form drawings

Short answer

If the wording is independently registrable and it is the main thing customers use to identify you, a standard-character application is usually the broader first filing. It protects the wording without tying the registration to a particular font, size or colour, so it follows you through a redesign.

A logo or special-form filing matters more when the design itself carries source-identifying significance, or when the wording alone is weak or unregistrable. Which one comes first depends on what your customers actually use to recognise you, how you use the mark, and what you can afford.

What changes the answer

Whether the words can stand alone: If the wording is descriptive or generic, the word application may fail on its own and the design may be the only thing carrying the mark.
How often the design will change: Logos get refreshed. A design registration is tied to the mark as depicted, and a change that alters the mark’s commercial impression is a material alteration that normally needs a new application. A standard-character registration is not tied to a particular presentation.
What the design adds: A strong, prominent design element can separate two marks that share a word. That cuts both ways: it can get you past a refusal, and it means your protection is tied to keeping the design.
Budget: Two applications cost two filing fees per class. If you can only do one now, the question is which element is carrying the recognition.

The rule

An application uses either a standard character drawing or a special form drawing. A standard character drawing claims the wording itself and is not limited to a particular font, style, size or colour. A special form drawing claims the mark as depicted. See 37 C.F.R. § 2.52 (2026); U.S. Pat. & Trademark Off., Trademark Manual of Examining Procedure §§ 807.03–807.04 (May 2026) [hereinafter TMEP].

Two consequences follow. A standard character registration is not narrowed by how you happen to display the mark — but it is not widened by it either, so a respelling or a styling choice will not add meaning the plain words do not carry. And because the mark generally cannot be materially altered after filing, a redesign that changes the commercial impression of a special-form mark normally calls for a new application rather than an amendment.

What the Board has done

Two decisions in this library, rewritten in plain English from the Board’s opinion.

SHARPIN was refused for knife blocks with built-in sharpeners. The applicant amended the drawing mid-application to “SharpIN,” and the Board held that a standard character drawing stayed a standard character drawing — the restyling could not give the plain word a second meaning.

A repeating diamond pattern on electronic hookahs was refused because it read as decoration rather than as a brand. A design only protects you if buyers take it as a source.

Method. This library holds 178 Board decisions coded to a fixed schema, as of 2026-09-19. It is a curated collection, not a random sample, and it is not yet classified by legal ground — so these are illustrations of the two drawing types, not counts, and nothing here is a rate. The Board docket has been checked for later history on 153 of the 178; for the other 25 it has not been checked, which is not the same as clean.

Refusal affirmed

The Board found SHARPIN for knife blocks with built-in automatic sharpeners merely descriptive because it is the phonetic equivalent of ‘sharpen’ and immediately describes…

Read the plain summary →In re Calphalon Corp. · 2017No later change on its docket Registration refused

The Board found that a repeating diamond pattern on electronic hookahs is merely ornamental and does not function as a trademark, and Fantasia Distribution’s evidence was…

Read the plain summary →In re Fantasia Distribution, Inc. · 2016No later change on its docket

Go deeper

Whether a design element separates your mark from someone else’s is the first du Pont factor, and the guide walks that analysis with the corpus underneath it.

Is another trademark too close to mine? →

What to do next

Look at your logo with the words removed and ask whether a customer would still recognise it. If yes, the design is carrying real weight and deserves its own application. If no, the design is styling, and a standard-character filing on the wording is covering what matters — provided the wording is registrable on its own.

This is a choice you can usually make yourself with the test above. A lawyer helps most when the wording alone may be refused as descriptive, because then the logo filing is doing different work.

Attorney review is provided by Valet Law, PLLC, a law firm separate from Trademark Valet, LLC. Keep confidential facts out of public tools. Your first message to Valet Law should identify the parties and the general issue only. Wait until Valet Law confirms it can discuss the matter before sending confidential details.

Who checked this

Reviewed and approved by Brandon Leavitt on 2026-10-02.

General information about how trademark law works. It is not legal advice about your situation, and reading it does not make anyone your lawyer.