Christmas is knocking on the chimney and we expect (hope for!) an onslaught of designs. To ensure that your creativity can stand on solid legal feet, we wanted to explain a few things.
When using “word marks” you should generally make sure that:
– they are not standing alone
– they are not in the foreground of the design
Let’s assume that the word “Snow” is a word mark (don’t worry, it’s not one … yet). If the design consists of an image and word mark, then this should be integrated into the image design. In other words, the version on the left is the way to go to get around this imaginary word mark.
The version on the right is not the way to do it and this design would be rejected by our Legal Service team for infringement on the word mark. This is because it doesn’t follow the two points above: the word is standing alone and can be seen in the foreground of the design.
In order to research word marks and other protected material, use the following links:
- German Patent and Trademark Office (DPMA)
- British Intellectual Property Office (IPO)
- French Patent and Trademark office (INPI)
- Trade marks and Designs Registration Office of the European Union
- World Intellectual Property Organization(WIPO) – for international brands
We’ve already done some (legally non-binding, of course) research on Christmas word marks and surprisingly (and happily) didn’t find too many. Your creativity has almost no bounds, at least with the main keywords like Christmas, Merry Christmas and and and.
Feel free to contact us if you have any general or detailed legal questions!
Good call, and don’t forget to be creative. There’s nothing worse than a ‘seen it all before’ idea on a t-shirt!