Legal Question in Intellectual Property in Illinois

For the name, you may want to consider getting trademark protection. For the logo, you may want to consider both copyright and trademark protection (assuming you own the applicable rights to the logo). Not all names/logos are subject to trademark protection, however, and in addition to preventing others from using them, I strongly advise having a trademark search conducted FIRST to determine if someone else already has a trademark on the name/logo, or something confusingly similar.

On whether to hire a lawyer, I don't perform my own root canals!

It is important to protect any intellectual property that you have created and/or are using to identify your business, etc. While neither a copyright or a trademark application require an attorney to file, I do recommend that an attorney be utilized to ensure the job is done correctly. I have had several new clients come to me with copyright/trademark filings they have undertaken by themselves, and I ended up having to re-file or fix the filings (most times, if not always, at a higher cost than if I had just filed the application(s) initially).

While trademark rights are secured automatically in the United States by being the first one to use a trademark, the advantages of federal registration include the following; your registration would be prima facie evidence of the validity of your registered mark, your ownership of that mark, and your exclusive right to use your mark in the U.S. Also, anyone seeking to register a similar mark in the U.S. will find your trademark application or registration in the records of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, which should encourage them not to adopt and use a similar mark for similar goods. The advantage of hiring an attorney experienced in trademark matters over doing it yourself, is that he or she would have experience handling similar marks and could save you money by advising you as to how you could most efficiently protect your logo and name, by for example, if possible, combining various elements of both in a single application, as well as advise you as to the likelihood that your trademark application would be approved by the Patent Office by conducting a pre-application search. Having a trademark search conducted first would also advise you whether someone else is already using the same or similar name or logo for the same or similar goods. A trademark registration protects the use of of a name or logo to identify the source of a product or service, a copyright protects graphic works from copying but designs for useful articles such as vehicular bodies, wearing apparel, household appliances, and the like are not protected by copyright unless their graphic features can be identified as existing independently of the utilitarian object in which they are embodied.