Can Any Logo or Word Be Trademarked? Not Quite — Here's What You Need to Know
When launching a new brand, most entrepreneurs focus on visuals, voice, and vibe — but forget one thing: not every name or logo can be legally protected. Even if your brand is already in use, it may still be refused registration if it doesn’t meet one key requirement: distinctiveness.
Let’s unpack what that means — and how to give your brand the best shot at trademark protection in Poland and across the EU.
When a Trademark Can Be Refused
Trademark offices can refuse registration for a number of reasons. The most common? Lack of distinctiveness. That is, if your brand name or logo is too descriptive, generic, or commonly used in trade, it may not qualify for protection.
There's also a risk of conflict with earlier rights. If another business already holds a similar or identical trademark, especially in the same industry, they can oppose your application. If their objection is upheld, you won’t just lose the chance to register. You’ll lose your filing fees — and possibly the brand itself.
That’s why legal review at the brand design stage isn’t just helpful — it’s essential. It can save you from the costly need to rebrand after investing time, money, and marketing resources into something that turns out to be unprotectable. While it’s sometimes possible to register a trademark based on secondary distinctiveness, this path is complex, time-consuming, and only available for brands that have already achieved significant market recognition — making it a difficult route for most new or growing businesses.
What Makes a Trademark “Distinctive”?
To qualify for registration, a brand must stand out and help consumers recognise the source of goods or services, not just describe them.
Think of it this way: customers don’t need to know your name or phone number. They just need to recognize that products marked with your brand come from you — and not your competitors. The trademark becomes a kind of mental shortcut, signaling trust, quality, and consistency.
The good news? Most IP offices — whether in Poland or across the EU — apply this concept in similar ways. Once you understand what “distinctive” means in practice, you’re already on the right track.
First Impressions Matter: One Look, One Thought
A trademark’s distinctiveness also depends on how quickly it’s recognized. The strongest brands create an instant impression — a mental flash that experts refer to as a “single cognitive act.”
In simple terms:
A lengthy slogan? Too much work for the brain.
A clean, visually distinctive logo? Easy to spot, easy to remember.
Interestingly, even complex visuals can meet the distinctiveness requirement — as long as their key features form a memorable whole. The viewer’s brain creates a kind of mental snapshot, storing the dominant elements for future recognition. When they see the mark again, even after some time, they instinctively recall it as “the same one.”
That’s exactly what happened with EU trademark no. 000002237. Despite having no words at all, it was granted protection by the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) because it stood out visually. Recognize the product it's used on?
In short: for a trademark to be effective, it must be clear and memorable enough for someone to mentally isolate it and link it with the specific goods or services it represents.
Your mark should be memorable, even without deep analysis. A bold graphic, a unique shape, or an invented word like Kodak (which has no prior meaning in any language) are classic examples of strong, registrable trademarks.
By contrast, something ultra-minimal — like a single horizontal line — may fly under the radar and fail to make that mental impact.
Types of Trademarks: Word, Graphic, or Hybrid?
You can register your brand as:
A word mark (protects the word across all formats — visual and audio),
A figurative/graphic mark (logos or stylized designs),
Or a word-graphic mark (a mix of both).
Each comes with different legal advantages. Word marks offer the broadest protection — including use in speech (e.g., radio ads, domain names). In contrast, graphic or (word-graphic) marks protect only the visual form.
Here’s a common pitfall: a business registers only a stylized version of its brand name as a logo, then later discovers another company using the same word in plain text. Without a registered word mark, enforcing rights against that kind of use can be difficult — and sometimes impossible.
The Right Protection for the Right Products
Trademark protection isn’t one-size-fits-all. It applies to specific product and service classes, using the Nice Classification system.
Let’s say you design and sell clothing:
You’ll want to register in Class 25 (clothing, footwear, headgear).
If you also sell online under the same brand, consider Class 35 (e-commerce and retail services).
Offering accessories? Add Class 14 (jewellery) too.
It’s all about aligning your trademark rights with your actual business activities.
Case Example: The Brand "Glow"
Imagine you're registering the word "Glow" for clothing. Sounds sleek and modern — and it’s likely registrable, especially if no one else owns it. Why? It’s not directly descriptive of clothes, yet suggests a positive effect (looking radiant).
Now, try "Glow" for jewellery. That’s trickier. Since jewellery literally “glows” or “shines,” the term becomes more descriptive. In that case, you might need to add original styling or graphics to make it distinctive enough — though the word itself won’t be fully protected unless filed separately as a word mark.
Smart entrepreneurs often register a family of trademarks — including the word mark, stylized versions, and various product class combinations — to match their long-term business goals and cover all bases.
EU vs. Polish Trademark Strategy: Key Distinction
In EUIPO (EU Intellectual Property Office) practice:
Only two trademark types exist: word marks and figurative (graphic) marks.
Any mark with a visual element — even if it contains a word — is treated as a graphic trademark, which does not protect the word’s use as sound or speech (e.g., on the radio or in a domain name).
In contrast, Polish practice may allow for word-graphic marks with visual limitations, but this still doesn’t replace the protection a pure word mark offers. When in doubt — register both.
Don’t Skip the Clearance Check
Before applying, always check for conflicting earlier trademarks. Use tools like:
TMview: EU Trademark Search Tool
A conflict with an earlier mark can result in:
An opposition being filed during the registration process,
Complete rejection of your application,
And no refund on fees.
Worst case? You’ll be forced to rebrand.
Smart Brand Strategy: Know What You Want to Protect
A legally sound brand starts with a strategic decision:
What’s the core of your brand identity — the name, the logo, or both?
How will the brand be used — in print, online, or via speech?
Which products or services do you want covered?
By aligning legal protection with your brand’s real-world usage, you ensure that your marketing investment is safe — and scalable.
Pro tip: Work with an IP lawyer early in the process. A short consultation can save thousands in branding mistakes later.
A person needs to isolate a given intangible good precisely and easily enough in his consciousness to associate it with the products and services available under this designation.
Ultra simple markings and distinctiveness
In this context, ultra-simple signs such as "-," i.e., one short horizontal line without any additional elements, which the customer may not notice or treat as unnecessary and not worth remembering, may be problematic for trademark registration.
However, an original word such as "Kodak" with no specific meaning in any language will still be suitable for use as a trademark. It is sufficiently characteristic, easy to remember, and short to become a carrier of associations with products and services sold under the "Kodak" sign.
Therefore, the word "Kodak" is distinctive as a word mark, i.e., one that can be perceived by sight and hearing (i.e., a mark that is also subject to protection in radio advertising).
Types of trademarks: word, graphical and word-graphical
It is possible to register trademarks limited only to graphics (without words), such as logos of car brands such:
as well as signs combining the verbal and graphic layers:
A mark with an abstract verbal element (without specific associations in itself) or a name will usually have a higher level of distinctiveness than a purely figurative mark. However, the broadest protection for a brand containing a verbal element is provided by a word mark because it protects it on both levels: audio and visual.
A word trademark – pros and cons
However, a word mark provides the broadest protection for a brand containing a verbal element since it protects the brand on both audio and visual levels.
A word-graphic mark, i.e. a mark containing a word element incorporated into a specific graphic, will often not protect a competitor's use of the word element itself, for example, in a radio advertisement or a domain name, because it only protects the visual layer of the trademark ("what is visible"), let alone what the sign sounds like.
The word mark protects the sound. However, the scope of products or services for which the mark is to be used must also be considered. A brand or logo often describes the products and services the entrepreneur selects.
Entrepreneurs specialize in producing one or several types of products or services or in several sectors of business activity. For instance, the entrepreneurs designing and sewing clothing will be interested in registering a mark mainly for products from class 25 of the Nice classification, which includes clothing, footwear, and headgear. They may also consider class 14 - jewellery or class 35 (advertising; business management; business administration; office work) about online sales services if, for example, they have an Internet domain identical to the mark under which they run their online store (so, apart from designing and sewing in-house, it also offers its customers the opportunity to purchase its products on the Internet, instead of using the services of other suppliers such as eBay, Zalando or Allegro platforms).
If an entrepreneur chooses a word brand for his clothes - "Glow", as long as there are no previous, conflicting registrations, it will be easy to register it as a trademark. It meets the requirement of a single cognitive act and is not directly descriptive of clothes. However, it may allusively refer to the properties of these clothes, suggesting to the customers that wearing “Glow” clothes will make them appear radiant. It might be more difficult to register the "Glow" trademark for jewellery because the reference to the properties of the goods is more direct (a higher degree of descriptiveness of the mark). In this case, adding original graphics and styling the word element can increase the mark's distinctiveness and thus facilitate its successful registration. However, legal protection of such a trademark will no longer cover the word element - "Glow".
In Polish verbal and graphic trademarks, protection applies only to the verbal element perceived visually in a specific graphic context - that is, the trademark protects only what is visible. A solution may be registering a word mark for clothes and a separate word and graphic mark for jewellery. In trading practice, entrepreneurs often reserve the so-called trademark families, i.e. various variants of trademarks, to best match the available legal protection to the business needs. This is also important in securing the right to the Internet domain, which will be adequately protected by the word mark.
It is an excellent idea to analyze your needs in this respect and consider whether to:
Start with a verbal-figurative mark, which is easier to register and add a word mark later, or
To choose a word mark with high distinctiveness and stop at it, or
Register both word and graphic trademarks simultaneously, or
Register the whole family of trademarks (more variants of the trademark) to provide adequate protection for the brand's visual identification along with its verbal layer as a separate element, performing its function regardless of the context of the word's use —irrespective of the mark's graphics.
It is worth noting that in the EU Office's terminology, there are only two types of signs:
1. Word signs, where only the word is relevant,
2. And graphic signs, where visual perception is essential - what is seen, without what could be "heard" in the case of graphic trademarks with the word element.
Therefore, each mark with a graphic element for the EU Office will be a graphic (figurative) trademark that does not protect the word element of the mark in the sense of "sound" (including the domain name).
Objection to the trademark application
The trademark application should comply with the rights of third parties with prior priority. In particular, the marking should be distinguishable from previously registered marks, which can be checked here: https://www.tmdn.org/tmview/#/tmview. The so-called collision with an earlier mark (i.e., in simple terms, the possibility of transferring customer associations from this earlier mark to a later mark) may result in an opposition being filed by a third party during the registration procedure or subsequent invalidation of the mark, so it is worth checking your mark before submitting the application to the office and introducing any necessary changes if needed. In the event of an upheld objection (when the third party's claims about the infringement of its rights are confirmed in the so-called dispute proceedings), the office will refuse to register the mark and will not refund the fees paid.
Therefore, when finalizing a new brand, it is crucial to consider the desired scope of possible protection to make informed decisions. Understanding the extent to which you want to protect your brand and awareness of relevant prior third-party rights will help shape your strategy. By evaluating the scope of protection early in the branding process, you can identify potential risks and opportunities, ultimately safeguarding your brand's uniqueness and market position. It is recommended to consult with an intellectual property lawyer to navigate through these decisions effectively.
Please be advised that I am a Polish attorney-at-law. Therefore, I render legal services mainly under Polish law.
However, since Poland is a member of the European Union, and the EU sets forth the legal framework for trademark and industrial design rights effective throughout the EU, I can also support you regarding those EU rights.
If you need legal services under any local law other than Polish law (for instance - Irish law, UK law, the US Federal’s or a particular state’s law), please be advised that only the lawyer qualified under the law of such particular jurisdiction (territory) will be suitable to provide you with accurate legal advice. I can help you find a lawyer or render consulting services for minor issues. However, I am not rendering legal services for law orders that are different from Polish and EU law.
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