Your own coat of arms

Leading by tradition and law: Who is allowed to have a coat of arms?

There is a persistent misunderstanding regarding the coat of arms: Many people believe that the carrying of a coat of arms is exclusively reserved for the historical high nobility. However, legal history and heraldic tradition paint a completely different picture. Already in the late Middle Ages, alongside the noble coat of arms, the bourgeois coat of arms came into being, which was open to artisans, patricians, and scholars.

In the modern legal system, the coat of arms enjoys the same reliable protection as the civil name itself. According to settled case law, a legally registered coat of arms falls under the protection of the name. Everyone is free to create a new coat of arms or to maintain a historically handed down family or feudal coat of arms in accordance with the heraldic rules. A coat of arms is thus not a relic of bygone privileges but a protected symbol of individual and family identity.

The coat of arms in modern everyday life: a stylish understatement

A coat of arms exerts its strongest effect where it is discreetly, yet naturally integrated into everyday life. It serves not merely as decoration but also functions as a personal signature and visual seal:

On high-quality letterhead and correspondence cards, a stamped coat of arms gives each handwritten line a special weight. Incorporated into a gold or silver seal ring, it continues a centuries-old tradition in the sealing of documents. In the business or publishing environment, it adorns book covers, exlibris for one’s own library, or the header of an ambitious website. Artfully framed on the wall of the study or on fireplace and desk accessories, it recalls the historical roots of the chosen home.

Legal use, trademark protection and individual coat of arms foundation

The use of the included emblem in both private and representative contexts is entirely at your discretion. You are free to use the high-resolution emblem files for all your personal purposes without any restrictions – whether on fine-quality paper, personal business cards, elaborately engraved seal rings, private invitation cards, exlibris stamps for your home library, or as part of your private online presence. In all these areas of life, the emblem exerts its full stylistic impact as a visible sign of a grown-up identity.

With regard to legal protection and a commercial trademark application, however, it is important to note an important formal distinction. The copyright to the graphic designs included with the product remains with the Noble Society Institute. For this reason, it is not possible to have this standard flag registered unchanged as a protected word-image trademark with the German Patent and Trademark Office (DPMA) or international trademark offices in the name of the company itself, as the office must be presented with proof of exclusive, sole copyright and exploitation rights for this purpose.

However, if you wish to have a coat of arms registered with the trademark office exclusively for yourself, your family or your company, we offer tailored options for you. Firstly, we offer the targeted modification of the existing historical coat of arms. Our heralds then adapt the design to your individual requirements, creating a unique item that is protected by trademark law. The financial outlay for this depends on the complexity of the design and is typically around €80.

On the other hand, you have the option of creating a completely new family or corporate coat of arms from scratch. Our heraldry studio designs a completely new family or corporate coat of arms that is architecturally correctly constructed according to your personal symbol preferences, color specifications, and heraldic values. With this redesign, we grant you the exclusive rights of use in full, so that an official and worldwide trademark application is no longer hindered. Depending on the level of detail desired and the historical elaboration, the cost for such a heraldic redesign is approximately 200 euros.