You have spent time and money building up your business from scratch – you have achieved good sales growth and you have made an impression in your sector. You may be 12 months after company foundation or it may be three years since that point. This is a great position to be in but there could be one particularly big cloud on the horizon.
If you haven’t established a trade mark for your company name, logo and strapline you are taking a huge risk because a competitor could literally take your name and force you to start all over again. Think this sounds a little dramatic? Well, consider this list of 10 things you should know about trademark registration in UK, below and think again.
Trademark Registration in UK for Business – 10 Things you should know
1. If you run a business without a registered trade mark your competitors could register the trade mark and force you to rebrand or they could trade under a similar name and leverage your good will or damage the reputation you have established.
2. The fact that you have your name registered at Companies House (UK Companies) or that you own your URL is no protection at all.
3. The fact that you have been trading longer than the new competitor holds no legal sway either – if they have the trade mark it will be you who has to rebrand.
4. A trade mark should not be confused with copyright which the Intellectual Property Office defines as ‘ Copyright is an automatic right which applies when the work is fixed, that is written or recorded in some way.’
5. With a trade mark you can deter people from using your trade mark without your permission.
6. Take legal action against anyone using your trade mark without permission and enable the authorities to bring criminal charges against counterfeiters.
7. You could establish a trade mark for your business for as little as two hundred pounds but the actual cost will depend on how many classes (categories) you wish to be registered in.
There is detailed pricing information on the IPO website here:
http://www.ipo.gov.uk/types/tm/t-formsfees.htm
8. For most applications the process of establishing a trade mark in the UK takes a period of up to 3 months.
9. In addition to a UK trade mark there is also a EU Community (TM) and an International Trade Mark. You can apply for both via the Intellectual Property Office once you have a UK trade mark established. More info on these options here:
http://www.ipo.gov.uk/applymadrid.pdf
10. A trade mark can become very valuable as your business grows and if you were to ever sell your business the value will be increased if you own the trade mark.
Hopefully this post will have moved establishing a trade mark off the ‘nice to have’ list and onto your ‘to do’ list. We believe it is an essential step to take when you are planning for business growth.
We hope you find this information useful.We are a leading Marketing Agency in London.
Kind regards,
Marketing Fundamentals Team
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