How to Copyright a Logo: Filing, Fees, and Refusals

To copyright a logo, you file an online application with the U.S. Copyright Office through its Electronic Copyright Office (eCO) portal, upload a digital image of the artwork, and pay a fee that starts at $45. Protection actually begins the moment you create the logo and save it in a tangible form, but federal registration is what lets you sue for infringement and collect meaningful damages if someone copies it. Before you file, two questions are worth settling: does your logo contain enough original artwork to qualify, and do you actually own the rights to register it.

Does Your Logo Qualify for Copyright

Copyright covers the original artistic elements of a logo, meaning the illustration, the graphic design, and the creative arrangement of visual elements. It does not protect names, titles, slogans, or short phrases, and it does not cover the underlying idea behind a design.¹ To register, a logo has to qualify as a “pictorial, graphic, or sculptural work” with enough original creative authorship.²

The Copyright Office routinely refuses registration for logos that consist only of text, basic lettering or scripting (with or without simple ornamentation), or common geometric shapes.² A wordmark that is essentially your company name in a particular font, even a stylized one, probably won’t qualify. A logo with an illustrated character, an original abstract design, or a detailed pictorial element has a much stronger case. The Office does not judge aesthetic quality; the question is whether the design contains creative visual authorship beyond text and basic shapes.

Confirm You Own the Copyright Before Filing

The person who created the artwork is the copyright owner by default, even if you paid them and gave them direction. The exception is a “work made for hire,” which applies in only two situations.³ The first is when an employee designs the logo as part of their regular job duties, in which case the employer automatically owns the copyright. The second is when an independent contractor creates the logo under a signed written agreement that expressly calls it a work made for hire, and the work falls within one of nine specific categories defined by statute.

Here is where a lot of businesses get caught. Those nine eligible categories include things like contributions to collective works, translations, and atlases, and a standalone logo designed for a company does not fit any of them.⁴ So even if your contract with a freelance designer says “work made for hire,” that label alone will not transfer ownership of a logo. The contract needs a separate copyright assignment clause, which is a written transfer signed by the designer.⁵

If you hired a freelancer and your contract does not include a signed assignment, you do not own the copyright yet. Get that document signed before you file a registration in your name.

Why Registration Is Worth the Fee

Copyright protection begins automatically the moment you create the logo and fix it in a tangible form, whether that means a sketch on paper or a saved digital file. You don’t have to register anything to hold a copyright. Registration matters because of what it lets you do with that copyright.

You generally cannot file a copyright infringement lawsuit in federal court until you have registered, or at least applied to register, the work.⁶ Without registration, you have rights on paper but no practical courtroom.

Timing also controls the damages you can pursue. If you register before infringement begins (for unpublished works) or within three months of first publishing the logo (for published works), you can seek statutory damages and attorney’s fees. Register after discovering infringement and you are limited to your actual provable losses, which for a logo can be difficult to quantify.⁷

A registration certificate issued within five years of first publication also serves as strong legal evidence that the copyright is valid and that the facts in the certificate are accurate.⁸ That evidentiary weight diminishes the longer you wait.

A Note on Trademark

Many people searching for how to copyright a logo actually need trademark protection, or both. Copyright protects the artistic content of the logo as a creative work. Trademark protects the logo’s function as a brand identifier, meaning something that tells consumers who makes the product or provides the service.⁹ Copyright stops someone from copying your artwork; trademark stops competitors from using a confusingly similar logo in your industry, even if they created it independently. A logo can qualify for both protections at the same time.¹ Trademark filings go to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and are a separate process from what follows below.

What to Gather Before You File

Have this information ready before you open the application:

The copyright claimant: the full legal name and address of the person or entity that owns the copyright. This might be a business entity rather than the individual designer.
The author: the full legal name of whoever actually created the logo. For a work made for hire, the employer is listed as the author.
The year the logo was completed.
The date of first publication, if the logo has already been used publicly on products, a website, business cards, or similar. Leave this blank if the logo hasn’t been made public yet.

You also need a deposit copy, which is a clear digital image of the logo that shows all of its copyrightable content. The image should reproduce the actual colors used and be complete enough that a reviewer can see the entire design.¹⁰ Standard image formats like JPEG, PDF, or TIFF work for electronic uploads.

Filing Through the eCO System

The Copyright Office handles registrations through its Electronic Copyright Office portal at copyright.gov.¹¹ Online filing is faster and cheaper than paper.

The process runs in three steps.¹² First, log in, select “Work of the Visual Arts” as the type of work, and fill in the author, claimant, title, and publication details you gathered.¹³ Second, pay the fee by credit card, debit card, or ACH bank transfer through Pay.gov. Third, upload the digital image file of your logo.

Review everything before submitting. Errors in the author’s name, claimant information, or publication date can cause delays or require a supplementary registration to correct later.

What It Costs

The Copyright Office charges two different fee levels for an online logo registration, depending on your situation:¹⁴

Single application, $45. Available when one person created the logo, that same person is the copyright claimant, and the work is not made for hire. This is the simplest and cheapest option.
Standard application, $65. Required when the work has multiple authors, when the author and claimant are different (common when a business owns the logo), or when the work is made for hire. Most business logos fall into this category.

If you need to register several related logo designs at once, a group registration option lets you register up to 20 published two-dimensional artworks for a flat $85 fee, which is a substantial discount over filing each one separately.

How Long It Takes

After you submit, the Copyright Office sends a confirmation of receipt. Then you wait. Based on the most recently published data, online applications with a digital deposit take an average of 1.9 months to process, with some claims completed in under a month and others taking up to 3.8 months.¹⁵

If the Office has questions and needs to contact you, expect a longer wait. Claims requiring correspondence average 3.7 months and can stretch to 8.1 months.¹⁵ Watch the email address you used during filing, because slow responses to Office inquiries push the timeline further out.

When the application is approved, the Office issues a Certificate of Registration showing the registration number and the effective date. The effective date is not the day the certificate arrives; it’s the day the Office received your complete application, deposit, and fee.¹⁵ That distinction matters for the timing-based remedies described earlier.

If Your Registration Is Refused

The Copyright Office may refuse to register a logo it determines lacks sufficient creative authorship. A refusal is not the final word. You can request reconsideration within three months of the refusal date.¹⁶

The appeal has two levels:

First request, $350. A different staff attorney reviews your claim. You need to explain specifically why the refusal was wrong, addressing each reason the Office gave. The Office responds within about four months.¹⁴
Second request, $700. If the first request is denied, you can escalate to the Review Board, which includes the Register of Copyrights and two other senior officials. Their decision is the final agency action.¹⁶

In your written request, include the case number from your application, the correspondence ID from the refusal letter, and a clear argument identifying the creative elements the examiner may have overlooked. At each stage you have three months from the date of the prior refusal to submit your appeal.¹⁶

Once you hold a registration certificate, keep the file. It’s the document you’ll need if you ever have to send a takedown notice, negotiate a license, or take an infringer to court.

1
U.S. Copyright Office. What Does Copyright Protect
2
U.S. Copyright Office. Compendium Chapter 900 Visual Art Works
3
U.S. Copyright Office. Works Made for Hire
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 US Code 101 – Definitions
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 US Code 204 – Execution of Transfers of Copyright Ownership
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 US Code 411 – Registration and Civil Infringement Actions
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 US Code 412 – Registration as Prerequisite to Certain Remedies for Infringement
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 17 US Code 410 – Registration of Claim and Issuance of Certificate
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United States Patent and Trademark Office. Trademark, Patent, or Copyright
10
U.S. Copyright Office. eCO Help – Deposit Requirements
11
U.S. Copyright Office. Registration Portal
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U.S. Copyright Office. Online Registration Help
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U.S. Copyright Office. Help – Type of Work
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U.S. Copyright Office. Fees
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U.S. Copyright Office. Registration Processing Times FAQs
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U.S. Copyright Office. Circular 20 – Requests for Reconsideration