What Apple Did to Protect the Logo for the Apple Watch Sport

Yesterday, Bill wrote a touching post about how we received trademark protection for TRUST TREE on his wedding anniversary. But TRUST TREE shares a trademark birthday with another thing near and dear to our hearts . . . the Apple Watch Sport.

Indeed, yesterday, the Apple Watch Sport’s stylized logo was registered as a trademark by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

As you may have noticed, we are big Apple fans around the Tree of Trust. Three of us rep the Apple Watch Sport, so it is fitting we share a trademark registration date. While we share a registration date, there are a few differences between our trademarks and, more interestingly, what we had to submit with our applications to obtain trademark protection. In the biz, we call Apple’s newest registered trademark is a “special form” mark, while our recently registered trademark is referred to as a “standard character” mark.

In order to receive trademark protection for a “special form” mark (often a logo or stylized version of a word trademark), in addition to the typical information required to apply for trademark protection, an applicant must provide the trademark office with a JPG image of the trademark and a description of the trademark. Here, Apple submitted the image you see in the registration certificated above and provided the following description of its Watch Sport logo as “the design of an apple with a bite removed and the words “WATCH” and “SPORT.”

If you are using both a standard character (word) trademark and a special form (logo or stylized word) trademark, the best practice is to file trademark applications for both. We highly recommend consulting with a trademark attorney before filing any trademark application to make sure that you know what you can protect and what you need to do to obtain such protection.