--- title: Did you know you can protect your logo for free? description: You’ve most likely seen the press about Meta and all it’s new branding glory, however the branding, design and marketing community are in uproar about it. image: https://blog.opiumworks.com/hubfs/cover-Jan-05-2022-03-08-00-14-PM.jpg --- [![](https://blog.opiumworks.com/hs-fs/hubfs/logo-May-04-2026-12-09-10-0641-PM.png?width=316&height=36&name=logo-May-04-2026-12-09-10-0641-PM.png)](http://www.opiumworks.com) [Follow us on Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/ow.digital/) [Follow us on Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/OpiumWorks) [Follow us on Twitter](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCv0DSTHNNX4yRADwrXz9Z7Q) [Follow us on Facebook](https://www.facebook.com) [![](https://blog.opiumworks.com/hs-fs/hubfs/logo-May-04-2026-12-09-10-0641-PM.png?width=316&height=36&name=logo-May-04-2026-12-09-10-0641-PM.png)](http://www.opiumworks.com) [![](https://blog.opiumworks.com/hs-fs/hubfs/logo-May-04-2026-12-09-10-0641-PM.png?width=316&height=36&name=logo-May-04-2026-12-09-10-0641-PM.png)](http://www.opiumworks.com) [Follow us on Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/ow.digital/) [Follow us on Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/OpiumWorks) [Follow us on Twitter](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCv0DSTHNNX4yRADwrXz9Z7Q) [Follow us on Facebook](https://www.facebook.com) # Did you know you can protect your logo for free? 11 Jan 2022 ![Picture of Marios Orphanos](https://app.hubspot.com/settings/avatar/b582ea4ef2b165ac763026d0827e0149) [Marios Orphanos](https://blog.opiumworks.com/author/marios-orphanos) ![protect your logo for free](https://blog.opiumworks.com/hubfs/cover-Jan-05-2022-03-08-00-14-PM.jpg) You’ve most likely seen the press about [Meta](https://blog.opiumworks.com/3d-world-meta-aka-facebook-group) and all its new branding glory, however the [branding](https://www.opiumworks.com/creative-and-multimedia/branding), [marketing,](https://www.opiumworks.com/digital-marketing-cyprus)and design community are in uproar about it. Why exactly? A German company named [M-sense Migraine](https://www.m-sense.de/en/) posted on social media whether the Meta company's new logo was “inspired” by the application icon they developed in 2016.   ![1-Jan-05-2022-03-14-06-41-PM](https://blog.opiumworks.com/hs-fs/hubfs/1-Jan-05-2022-03-14-06-41-PM.jpg?width=362&name=1-Jan-05-2022-03-14-06-41-PM.jpg)    ![2-Jan-05-2022-03-14-49-96-PM](https://blog.opiumworks.com/hs-fs/hubfs/2-Jan-05-2022-03-14-49-96-PM.jpg?width=362&name=2-Jan-05-2022-03-14-49-96-PM.jpg)   Did you know you can protect your logo so you can avoid this?   ![3-Jan-05-2022-03-19-02-88-PM](https://blog.opiumworks.com/hs-fs/hubfs/3-Jan-05-2022-03-19-02-88-PM.jpg?width=900&name=3-Jan-05-2022-03-19-02-88-PM.jpg)   After a brief research I found out that [M-sense](https://www.m-sense.de/en/) didn't own the trademark on their design elements, which has caused a difficult dilemma between them and the new [Meta](https://blog.opiumworks.com/3d-world-meta-aka-facebook-group) rebrand of the Facebook company. However there is a little known secret that you can deploy if your company is reasonably new (and you have the intention to use a trademark) but you haven’t had the resources to organize it. So, you’ve probably seen these two symbols before.   ![4-Jan-05-2022-03-24-05-69-PM](https://blog.opiumworks.com/hs-fs/hubfs/4-Jan-05-2022-03-24-05-69-PM.jpg?width=900&name=4-Jan-05-2022-03-24-05-69-PM.jpg)   But what exactly do they mean?   ![5-4](https://blog.opiumworks.com/hs-fs/hubfs/5-4.jpg?width=900&name=5-4.jpg)   ® - **Registered Trademark**   - **Must** be registered with a trademark office *(\*specific to country and/or state).* - Costs around €1000+ - Takes up to **3 years to register.** - Highest level of protection against trademark infringement.   ![6-2](https://blog.opiumworks.com/hs-fs/hubfs/6-2.jpg?width=900&name=6-2.jpg)   ™ - Unregistered Trademark - This displays your **intent** to register your trademark. - **Free** to use. - Acknowledges your ownership of the logo. - Can be used to support infringement disputes.   ™ is a completely free resource you can add to your toolkit and the best part is you can use it on your brand’s most precious asset…. Your logo! ™ is you signing your intention, the intention to register your trademark. This means once the professional you’ve hired finished the design of your logo, simply stick a ™ on it and no one can steal your logo. ![7-4](https://blog.opiumworks.com/hs-fs/hubfs/7-4.jpg?width=900&name=7-4.jpg) *The logo of Starbucks Coffee Company using the ™ symbol.* It’s important when working on your company’s [brand identity](https://blog.opiumworks.com/what-is-brand-identity-and-how-to-design-a-strong-one) to hire a branding/design professional. Part of the process would include a copyright research specific to a country and/or a state. Images in this article are not mine, rights of these items belong to [M-sense Migraine](https://www.m-sense.de/en/), [Meta](https://about.facebook.com/meta/) & [Starbucks Coffee Company](https://www.starbucks.com/).   ### Share: [Share on Facebook](http://www.facebook.com/share.php?u=https://blog.opiumworks.com/did-you-know-you-can-protect-your-logo-for-free&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook) [Share on LinkedIn](http://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https://blog.opiumworks.com/did-you-know-you-can-protect-your-logo-for-free&utm_medium=social&utm_source=linkedin) [Share on X](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?original_referer=https://blog.opiumworks.com/did-you-know-you-can-protect-your-logo-for-free&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&url=https://blog.opiumworks.com/did-you-know-you-can-protect-your-logo-for-free&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&source=tweetbutton&text=Did%20you%20know%20you%20can%20protect%20your%20logo%20for%20free) [Facebook](https://blog.opiumworks.com/topic/facebook), [Start-Up](https://blog.opiumworks.com/topic/start-up), [Branding](https://blog.opiumworks.com/topic/branding), [Marketing](https://blog.opiumworks.com/topic/marketing), [Design](https://blog.opiumworks.com/topic/design), [logo](https://blog.opiumworks.com/topic/logo), [business](https://blog.opiumworks.com/topic/business), [meta](https://blog.opiumworks.com/topic/meta), [trademark](https://blog.opiumworks.com/topic/trademark) ## Marios Orphanos Creative Director at Opium Works [marios.orphanos@opiumworks.com](mailto:marios.orphanos@opiumworks.com) [Follow me on my website](https://www.opiumworks.com/our-team) [Follow me on Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/marios.orphanos?fref=ts) [Follow me on LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/marios-orphanos-2a5014109?authType=NAME_SEARCH&authToken=oM_B&locale=en_US&trk=tyah&trkInfo=clickedVertical%3Amynetwork%2CclickedEntityId%3A456883613%2CauthType%3ANAME_SEARCH%2Cidx%3A1-1-1%2CtarId%3A1455795000148%2Ctas%3Amarios%20or) [Follow me on X](https://twitter.com/oM_Orphos?lang=en) ## Related posts Search [The new Instagram Feed is almost here! Find out what’s changing.](https://blog.opiumworks.com/the-new-instagram-feed-is-almost-here-find-out-whats-changing) [TikTok Kitchen: how to stay at the top of the food chain!](https://blog.opiumworks.com/tiktok-kitchen-how-to-stay-at-the-top-of-the-food-chain) Search ![logo-3](https://blog.opiumworks.com/hubfs/logo-3.svg "logo-3") [Follow us on Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/OpiumWorks) [Follow us on Twitter](https://twitter.com/owdigitalagency) [Follow us on Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/ow.digital/) ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@type" : "BlogPosting", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "Marios Orphanos", "url" : "https://blog.opiumworks.com/author/marios-orphanos" }, "dateModified" : "2022-01-11T19:30:50.879Z", "datePublished" : "2022-01-11T19:30:50.000Z", "headline" : "Did you know you can protect your logo for free?", "image" : [ "https://blog.opiumworks.com/hubfs/cover-Jan-05-2022-03-08-00-14-PM.jpg" ], "mainEntityOfPage" : { "@id" : "https://blog.opiumworks.com/did-you-know-you-can-protect-your-logo-for-free", "@type" : "WebPage" }, "publisher" : { "@type" : "Organization", "logo" : { "@type" : "ImageObject", "url" : "https://blog.opiumworks.com/hubfs/logo-May-04-2026-12-09-10-0641-PM.png" }, "name" : "Opium Works Digital" } } ```