How to Register a Logo as a Trademark — Step by Step, No Illusions

You invented a name, drew a logo, put it on your storefront and packaging — and you're sure it's yours. Surprise: until the mark is registered, "yours" is a very conditional word. Worse — if someone else registers a similar mark, the claim will be brought against you, even after years of use. Here's the registration procedure step by step: what to check, what it costs, where refusals come from.

(This article describes the Russian procedure via Rospatent; the logic — clearance search, classes, examination — is similar in most jurisdictions.)

Why register at all

• Protection from copying. Only a registered mark lets you prohibit others from using an identical or confusingly similar sign — and claim compensation up to 5M RUB.
• Protection from claims against you. Registration confirms your right. Without it, the owner of a similar registered mark can ban you from using your own logo — with signage, packaging and domain changes at your expense.
• An asset. A mark can be sold, licensed, put into a franchise, valued on the balance sheet. A franchise without a trademark is legally impossible.
• Marketplaces and advertising. Platforms increasingly demand proof of brand rights, and a registered mark is the strongest argument in listing disputes.

What can and cannot be registered

A trademark can be verbal (the name), figurative (the mark itself), combined (mark + name), even a color or a sound. In practice the workhorse is the combined mark, plus — budget permitting — a separate verbal one protecting the name in any styling.

Refusal grounds include:

• Descriptive signs: "Tasty Bread" for a bakery — no distinctiveness.
• Confusing similarity to marks already registered in the same classes — the top refusal reason.
• Common symbols and terms, state symbols, misleading signs.
• Borrowed elements of other brands in your mark — refusal plus lawsuit risk (the boundaries: can you use someone else's logo).

Step 1The clearance search

Before filing, the mark is checked against registered marks and — importantly — pending applications, which free public searches show incompletely. The search runs across your classes and covers not just exact hits but similarity: phonetic, visual, semantic.

Free and rough — open registry search plus reverse image search. Properly — a paid search via a trademark attorney: the one expense it's foolish to cut, because fees for a refused application are not refunded.

Step 2Classes

A mark is registered not "in general" but for specific goods and services under the Nice Classification (45 classes). A coffee shop is class 43; selling beans at retail adds 30 and 35. Choose by current activity plus realistic 2–3 year plans. Each class adds fees, and unused classes can be cancelled through court after three years of non‑use.

Step 3Application and examination

1. Filing — online (electronic filing cuts fees by 30%). The application: the mark's image, class list, applicant details. Since 2023 individuals and the self‑employed can apply, not only companies.
2. Formal examination (~1 month) — completeness check.
3. Substantive examination (typically 4–10 months) — the registry comparison. Provisional refusals can and should be argued against: some are overturned.
4. Registration and certificate. The mark lives 10 years from the filing date, renewable indefinitely.

Fee benchmark for 2026: from ~33K RUB total for one class filed electronically (check current amounts — they get indexed). Attorney services extra.

When it can wait

Honest answer: at the very start, while the hypothesis is unproven — it can (still run the search, so you don't build a brand on someone else's mark). Registration becomes urgent once there's something to lose: revenue, recognition, franchise plans, marketplaces, paid advertising. The practical rule: search before choosing the name, register before the first serious marketing spend.

In short

The scheme: registry search (don't skip!) → classes per real activity → electronic filing → responding to examination queries → a 10-year certificate. Costs start around ~33K RUB in fees; timelines from about half a year. An unregistered mark is a brand that can be taken away at any moment.

Before registering, make sure your mark doesn't resemble existing ones: browse your category's brands in our logo catalog and check the chosen sign against the official registries.