Canva’s licensing page says you “cannot use any Free or Pro content from Canva’s library in a trademark”, except fonts, simple shapes and lines. Its licence agreement lists using its content in a trade mark among the things you can’t do. A logo you drew yourself, or paid a designer to make, is a different case, and Canva says you can upload it and use it there. Whether IP Australia will register any logo is a separate question. IP Australia can answer it, and so can a registered trade marks attorney who has seen your logo.
Canva’s templates are open to everyone
Canva’s logo templates are there to be edited, and anyone can start from the same one. Its help page on logos says what follows from that: “your rights to the logo are non-exclusive and you can’t register it as a trade mark.”
The same page calls the templates customisable, and it doesn’t say that editing one changes the answer. Canva still recommends them if you’re just starting out and, in its words, “not worried about having exclusive rights”.
Primary source, verbatim
A trademark has to be a unique symbol which is exclusively used by a brand owner. For that reason, you cannot use any Free or Pro content from Canva’s library in a trademark (except for fonts, simple shapes and lines).
The library’s graphics and photos too
Canva’s help page says it only gives you “a non-exclusive licence” to its photos and graphics, and other Canva users are free to use the same ones. So it says using them in a logo “isn’t suitable for use in a trade mark”.
Canva’s licence agreement covers the same ground. Among the things it says you can’t do with any of its content, Free or Pro, is “use any of the Content as part of a trade-mark, design-mark, trade-name, business name or service mark (excluding fonts)”. It also says you can’t make out that you created Canva’s content, including by claiming “exclusive rights to” it.
What Canva says you can use
Canva’s help page and its licensing page both say what can go in a logo you mean to register.
- Canva’s fonts
- All of them. Fonts are also the one exception written into the trade mark rule in Canva’s licence agreement.
- Simple shapes and lines
- From the Free library, by the help page. Neither page says what makes a shape simple.
- Artwork that’s yours
- A logo you designed yourself, or one you commissioned from a designer, uploaded to Canva. Canva doesn’t sell exclusive rights to its own graphics at the moment, and its help page suggests a local graphic designer or artist instead.
Owning the design is a separate question
Canva’s page on copyright says that if you created an original design, you’re generally its copyright holder. If the design uses stock content from Canva’s library, your ownership is “subject to those third-party rights”. Whether a logo can be registered as a trade mark is a different question again, and that one belongs to IP Australia.
What a registered trade mark gives you
IP Australia says a trade mark “protects your company’s unique brand, products or services”, and a logo is one of the things it can protect. You can use a trade mark without registering it, but IP Australia says a registered one “generally provides stronger legal protection”. Registering gives you exclusive rights to use it in Australia, and a registration lasts up to 10 years before it needs renewing.
IP Australia’s list of common mistakes starts with thinking a business name registration gives you exclusive rights to the name. It doesn’t. The ™ symbol shows you’re claiming rights, which, in IP Australia’s words, “doesn’t necessarily mean that the rights exist, or are registrable or enforceable.” The ® symbol can only go on a registered trade mark.
What IP Australia checks
IP Australia lists the most common reasons a trade mark may not be registrable: it’s scandalous, its use would be illegal, it’s likely to cause confusion, it isn’t distinctive enough, or it’s too similar to another trade mark. It calls a mark non-distinctive when it’s “something other traders may legitimately want to use.”
Its page on what to consider before applying puts the last reason plainly: “A trade mark can only be accepted if it’s sufficiently different to others.”
How applying works
- Work out who owns itIP Australia says the owner needs “legal personality”, such as you or your company. A business name can’t apply, because the trade mark belongs to the business owner.
- Search what’s already thereIP Australia’s steps put a search of the existing trade marks before the application. Its free TM Checker gives feedback on whether yours is similar to one already registered.
- Choose how to applyA standard application is $250 for each class of goods or services. TM Headstart starts at $330: $200 for an examiner’s early look, then $130 if you go on to file. IP Australia doesn’t refund its fees, whatever the outcome.
- Send the logo and what it’s forYou supply an image of the logo and list the goods and services it covers, by class. There are 45 classes, and you only get exclusive rights for the goods and services you list.
- Wait for the examinerIP Australia says examination usually takes three to four months. If it’s accepted, the trade mark is published for two months, and anyone can oppose it in that time. All told, IP Australia says registering takes at least seven months.
Where a Logo Rebuild fits
We redraw logos people already have. A Logo Rebuild is $450, and it turns the logo you’ve got into true vector files that print sharp at any size. Genesis Realty Group is one we’ve done: a Perth real estate agency’s Canva logo, measured and redrawn.
A redraw keeps the design, so at a glance it’s the same logo. A logo that started as a Canva template still started as one after we redraw it. We can’t tell you what that means for a trade mark application. IP Australia or a registered trade marks attorney can.
If you want a logo with nothing from Canva’s library in it, that’s a new logo, and Canva’s own suggestion is a local graphic designer or artist. We’re a Perth studio, and a new logo starts at $250. Every file is yours once it’s paid for. Whether it can be registered is still IP Australia’s decision.
What we couldn’t establish
Canva doesn’t say what makes a shape or a line simple. Its licence agreement names fonts as the only exception to its trade mark rule, and the shapes and lines come from its help pages, so it isn’t clear how the two fit together.
Canva also calls its templates “a starting point for your own unique design”, without saying how far a design has to move from a template before it counts as your own.
IP Australia’s pages don’t mention Canva or design templates. We found nothing from IP Australia on how an examiner treats a logo built from one, so this article doesn’t guess.
None of the Canva or IP Australia pages we read shows a date, and Canva’s agreement says it can change its licences, so they’re worth reading again before you rely on them. This is a summary of what each had published on 2 November 2026. It isn’t legal advice.
Sources
Every figure in this article was read at the document itself.
Common questions
- Can I trademark a logo I made from a Canva template?
- Canva says you can’t. Its help page says its logo templates “can be used by anyone”, so your rights to the logo are non-exclusive “and you can’t register it as a trade mark.” For your own logo, IP Australia or a registered trade marks attorney can tell you where you stand.
- Can I use Canva fonts in a logo I want to trade mark?
- Canva says yes. Its help page and its licensing page both allow all of its fonts, along with simple shapes and lines. Fonts are also the exception in its licence agreement’s rule against using Canva content in a trade mark.
- Does redrawing a Canva logo make it registrable?
- We can’t tell you that. A redraw like our Logo Rebuild keeps the design and rebuilds the files, so a logo that started as a Canva template still started as one. Ask IP Australia or a registered trade marks attorney about your own logo.
- How long does a trade mark take to register in Australia?
- IP Australia says at least seven months. Examination usually takes three to four months, and an accepted trade mark is then published for two months, when anyone can oppose it. A registration lasts up to 10 years before it needs renewing.