The Process to Register a Trade Mark

New trademark registration process: building up a good reputation for your limited company can be a costly and long process, so if someone comes along and uses your trademark to operate under, and potentially ruins all the hard work that's gone in to establishing your brand, it could end up costing even more. Re-branding an existing company is a difficult process and one that can take years to develop. So to ensure that someone can't operate under your trademark, registering it from the beginning will protect you from any issues as this in the future.

The process: registering your private company with Companies House or buying a domain name are two ways in which people think their companies identity is secure. However, without a registered trademark anyone is able to come along and use aspects of your trademark, or indeed, all of it. The process of getting your trademark registered isn't as costly or as time consuming as you may think and lasts up to ten years from when the registration is granted. Companies can then choose to continue to have their trademark registered on an indefinite basis.

The process can take anywhere from six to nine months to register in the UK if the application is simple. There is also the ability to fast track applications so that a trademark can be registered in just four months. Applications for the European Community Trademark can take longer, around eighteen months for an uncomplicated application. Applications can be opposed by other businesses as any trademarks are advertised in the Trade Marks Journal for two months as a statuary requirement; however, strict deadlines need to be met if an opposition is logged but this can slow down an application.

Can my trademark be registered? Not every trademark can be registered and if it doesn't fall under the brackets of unique and nondescript the application is unlikely to be taken further. Words related to the sector you work in may also not be trademarked, but for example, in the case of Apple, they were able to register their trademark as they are in the computing sector and not selling fruit.