If you’ve ever sat down to design a logo for your business—maybe on your laptop at home in Gweru, or even scribbled an idea on a receipt at your favourite café—you’ve probably wondered how you can make sure it stays yours. Around Zimbabwe, there are so many stories of small business owners who wake up one morning to find their carefully created logo on someone else’s products or even on a billboard in a town where they’ve never set foot. It’s frustrating, it’s unfair, and it raises the big question: how do you legally safeguard your logo?
A lot of people hear words like “copyright” and “trademark” and think they mean the same thing. They don’t. In fact, knowing the difference can be the reason your business survives when copycats come knocking. Let’s break it down in a way that makes sense, using real-life Zimbabwean scenarios and not just textbook definitions.
Imagine you run a small takeaway in Kwekwe called “Maita Basa Kitchen.” You pay your neighbour’s son, who’s handy with computers, to design a bright, memorable logo with a cooking pot and steam rising in the shape of Zimbabwe. You love it, so you stick it on your signboard, your flyers, your WhatsApp profile, and even those branded takeaway packs you get made in town. It’s your business’s face, and soon, people start to associate that steaming pot with your food.
Here’s the thing: the moment that logo is created, copyright law gives you certain rights—automatically. You don’t need to fill in any forms. It’s like having your house protected by a fence the minute you finish building. Copyright means if someone grabs your exact design—the same lines, same colours, the whole thing—you have a legal leg to stand on. If you ever see your logo copy-pasted onto another shop’s flyers, you could challenge them, and with the right proof, the law would support you.
But there’s a catch. If someone copies your idea but redraws it slightly, tweaks the colours, or changes a little detail, copyright alone can leave you stuck. It’s hard to prove they stole your brand’s identity, even though anyone in your neighbourhood can see what’s going on. That’s why, for most businesses that want to grow and be known beyond their street or city, copyright protection feels a bit like locking your gate but leaving the back window open.
That’s where trademarks become a game changer. When you trademark your logo in Zimbabwe, you’re not just saying, “I own this art.” You’re making it official that this design stands for your specific goods or services. Think of it as putting your name on every product and declaring, “This is me—accept no substitutes.” Registering your logo as a trademark with the Zimbabwe Intellectual Property Office gives you the power to act if anyone uses a design that’s confusingly similar to yours, not just an exact copy. Even a lookalike logo can land them in trouble if customers might mix up the two brands.
Let’s bring it home with a real Zimbabwean example. Suppose your “Maita Basa Kitchen” logo starts showing up on boxes of cooking oil at a shop in Bulawayo, only now the steam is a different shape, but everything else looks suspiciously close. With just copyright, you’d have to prove the artwork was copied line by line—a tough ask if they changed enough to argue it’s their own. But if you’d registered your logo as a trademark, you could stop them with far less stress, because you’ve officially tied that image to your business in the eyes of the law.
A lot of Zimbabwean business owners still think trademarking is only for the big players in Harare or multinational companies. That’s not true. It’s a straightforward process, and the cost is nowhere near what people assume. Whether you designed your logo yourself or got it done by a family member, it’s worth protecting. LogoCert exists to help with just that—guiding you through registering your logo and making sure your brand is safe from local and international copycats.
Many people also ask, “Do I really need both copyright and a trademark?” The honest answer: copyright happens by default, but only covers direct copies of your design. Trademark is what gives your business the muscle to defend your brand’s identity and reputation, even when people try to get clever with lookalikes or similar-sounding names. In a country where word of mouth and visual identity matter so much, being able to stop confusion before it starts is priceless.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking you’re too small for someone to bother copying you, or that your Facebook page alone is enough to prove ownership. I’ve seen too many promising brands in Zimbabwe lose momentum because someone else started using their logo on a different product, leading to customer confusion and legal headaches.
If you’re unsure about where to begin, you don’t have to figure it out alone. This is exactly what LogoCert was created for: helping Zimbabwean businesses secure their brand identity, from the moment the logo is born to the day it’s seen by customers all over the country. So, next time you hand out a branded bag or see your logo pop up on social media, ask yourself—have you really locked the doors and windows, or just left the front gate open? What could your business become if you knew your logo was truly yours, protected and respected everywhere it appears?
