How to Trademark a Shirt Design
A trademark is something that identifies the goods of a particular manufacturer or seller, similar to a brand logo. You can trademark a shirt design intended to function as the identifying mark of a producer, artist or seller. It's not necessary to register a trademark for you to enforce against infringement, but registration is useful for a small company. Most shirt designs are not logos and, therefore, not subject to trademark protection, but, nevertheless, you can trademark your designs or protect them with a copyright.
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Instructions
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Search for existing marks. A trademark of a shirt design is not enforceable if it contains elements of or is to similar to an existing trademark. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has an online search system that makes it easy to search for existing registered trademarks (see the Resource section below).
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Apply for trademark registration. You can apply for trademark registration online (see the Resource section below). Specify that you are seeking a stylized or design trademark, as opposed to a standard character format. The former protects your particular arrangement of text and graphics, whereas the latter protects the content without protecting font, color, size or any design elements. Your application must include a specimen of a shirt with the design, as well as a separate drawing of the design.
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Pay the fee. The fee for a trademark application is $375, though it drops to $325 for an electronic application. You can pay the fee by credit card or electronic transfer.
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Tips & Warnings
Consider copyright protection for your design. A copyright prevents all unauthorized use of your design, whereas a trademark only prevents use by competitors in business settings where customers are likely to confuse the source of the product.
It can take six months to one year or more for USPTO to approve your trademark. However, you can use your design during this period and, even, potentially enforce your design against infringement during this period if it is in regular use as your trademark. You can put the "TM" next to your design before approval, but you cannot use the "R" that denotes a registered trademark until you receive approval for your application.
