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A PROFESSIONAL LOGO offers your company an infusion of attention and vigor while attracting the customers that may be lacking from your business.  A logo on its own, however, cannot yield success.  It needs a design and marketing plan that distinguishes your goods or services from your competitors’.  Similar to the logo, the brand name should be both unique and familiar.  Returning customers need to recognize it, and new customers need to understand and be attracted to it, without being confused by it.  Studies have shown that different colors promote different emotions, so ensure the colors you select convey your company’s image and personality.  A logo, in itself, cannot be termed as a brand.  A logo is like a face, while the brand is the soul, of a business.  A business’ brand name and logo differ; each one carrying its own purpose.  Another way to see it is that the brand name of a business is a promise.  It is a commitment to the client that their familiarity with a brand name is everything they think it is.  

 
The logo can be loosely described as the graphic representation of an organization, product or service.  It serves as the all-encompassing visualization of the nature and operations of the business.  Despite the fact that the logo may not give a comprehensive description of the organization’s nature, it should be able to express the company’s tone and individuality. 
 
The following focuses on how a brand differs from a logo:
 
  • Brand name is not a mark; it goes on to leave a mark.
 
Brand name is not a mark on a company’s sign.  It does, however, leave a mark on the client’s professional identity.  The bottom line is that the brand is intangible and can only be “built” hypothetically.  It is built on the clients’ perception and opinion of the product.  While the company builds a logo and develops what they want the brand to be, the customers decide what the brand will actually become.
 
  • A logo can be termed as an illustration while brand as an image.
 
Logos illustrate the meaning of the company, purpose of its existence, and what it offers.  For the brand, it’s a strategic focus.  It will highlight the company’s vision and prospective delivery of the product or service.
 
In closing, ensure that you know how to protect your brand name and logo as intellectual property.  In order to protect yourself, you need to trademark or copyright your material.  The difference between a trademark and a copyright is subtle, but vital.  A trademark protects words, phrases and logos used to identify the source of goods and services.  A copyright protects works of authorship as fixed in a tangible form of expression.  Examples of what a copyright covers include works of art, photos, pictures, graphic designs, drawings, songs, music and sound recordings of all kinds, books, manuscripts, publications and other written works, plays, movies, shows, and other performance arts.  If you are interested in protecting a title, slogan, or other short word phrase, generally, you want a trademark.

Keep in mind that there may be occasions when both copyright and trademark protection are desired for the same project.  For example, a marketing campaign for a new product may introduce a new slogan for use with the product, which also appears in advertisements for the product.  Copyright and trademark protection will cover different things.  The advertisement's text and graphics, as published, will be covered by copyright.  This will not, however, protect the slogan.  The slogan may be protected by trademark law, but this will not cover the rest of the advertisement.  If you want both forms of protection, you will have to perform both types of registration with the United States Trademark and Patent Office (www.uspto.gov).