What do you guys think? Im going to have the back side logo spot glossed

I think that you are either going to waste a lot of money on cards, advertising etc. or you are going to lose A LOT of money on trademark infringement suit...

is this design trademarked? What do you mean im going to waste money on cards? Do you not have acard?

Because, if it is, I will be very upset with the designer.

Issue is your name. "Critter Control" I believe is a trade marked name.

well, that could be a problem. I suppose you're saying that would not have been checked when I ran my ficticous business name statement?

Don't know if it would have or not.
http://www.trademarkia.com/critter-control-85946537.html

We used to have a VP of CC on this forum and he was very rigorous in defending the trademarks.

Maybe you could use the British spelling, Crittre. Or perhaps the French, Crittior.

Not sure if I like the logo either. Are you a prospector or trapper? Maybe it works in your locale. While the skunk is rather unique it took me a moment to deduce what it was. And just how do skunks and prospecting fit together?

Thought everyone knew of Critter Control....They defend their name ! your choice

Keep your skunk...It's awesome!

not your worst idea

its very common practice in my county. There's alot of "gold country" businesses, te school mascot is "the miners", and our tourism is centered around mining. I guess its a local thing.

but thanks for the heads up guys. I will be changing it today

so the pick and shovel represent the "Gold country" name

I figured that might be the case. In that case the logo is good to go as it IDs you as a local business which is always a good thing.

Also, for everyones information, its not copy rights that matter to names but trademarks.

PS, the term "Wildlife control", is also trademarked. Thats you paul.

My daughter asked if that was a Vampire Skunk!....(girls-facepalm)

I like the skunk, but it looks like you're a prospecting trapper---kinda.

I also agree that if a Critter Control agent or even his wife, sees that, they'll cry foul and sick the corporate lawyers on you.

The proper term is federally registered service mark.

You can service mark a name and/or logo on the federal level (covering all US states and territories) or you can register a state service mark (which is good just in your state). For instance, Bats, Birds is a service mark of mine. Wildlife Solutions is a service mark of Christian Agnew. Critter Control is a service mark of Critter Control, Inc.

So what does all this mean. Basically, it means that I have the right to protect my business name Bats, Birds, & More, Inc. from any "like" names regardless of spelling. This means if someone tries to name a company that offers wildlife removal or control Bats, Birds, & Beyond, Birds, Bats and other animals, Birds, Bees, and Bats, or Batt & Byrd Wildlife Control, I can use legal means to stop them from using a name similar to mine. I also have protection on Internet meta tags along these lines, but not as much as the company name.

Again, I have legal right to protect a meta tag that uses Bats, Birds, etc. or a close replication of it but I do not have the legal right to protect "We remove bats and birds". When you register a federal service mark for a company name you must sign a release when using common or generic words that you do not own the right to sole usage. For example, if you named your company "Batzee" you can register that name to give you legal protection against anyone else using the word "Batzee", but to register "All County Bat Control" you'd have to sign the release stating you don't have exclusive right to the words "County", "Bat", or "Control" (most likely "All" would not be included as it is too common).

To take this a step farther, if you do a service mark for a logo or acronym, then you can protect items such as look, font usage, and colors. However, just because you have the service mark for a logo it does not give you legal right against someone using the name from the logo.

This is why NWCOA registered the federal service marks for the CWCP and NWCOA logo, CWCP and NWCOA acronym, and Certified Wildlife Control Professional and National Wildlife Control Operators Association to give them the most legal protection as possible but they had to agree that they did not have the exclusive rights to the words "National" "Wildlife" "Control" "Operators" or "Association" in the process.

OK