Our Experience With Trade Mark Registration in Great Britain

For any brand name, logo or slogan used with any product or service you have, the identity should be protected. By legally registering the trademark it will help safeguard your commercial advantage and market position. At Coddan we have a great deal of experience helping small businesses with trademark applications. Because this is an area we specialise in we have a thorough knowledge of the possible scenarios facing your private company.

Possessing a UK trademark is the cheapest and quickest way to get hold of monopoly rights, and it can be obtained in under four months. This will provide instant evidence of your ownership of the limited company brand, preventing others having unlicensed use of your business name, logo or similar.

While common law does recognise unregistered rights it is very difficult to prove a name or image belongs to a claimant. While there are instances where a brand is heavily advertised throughout the UK it will still take a few years to gather the sufficient rights, which need to be backed up with evidence. Some of our previous clients have found these cases to be extremely time-consuming.

You will mainly benefit in two important ways by registering your UK trademark. It means you can continue to use your trademark, while also stopping your rivals from using an identical or very alike trademark to confuse customers when offering similar products or services. In past occasions we have had customers who have had unscrupulous third parties take away the trademark for their brand. This is why it is so important to complete your trademark application as soon as possible.

There are certain criteria your trademark must fulfil if you wish to complete registration, which will be assessed by the UK Intellectual Property Office. Your potential brand name needs to be distinctive but not a description of the service or goods the trademark is sought for. The application must be unique and not conflict with other registrations or pending requests. Also the name cannot be generic or customary in the area of business it is necessary for. If your registration documents satisfy the above requirements then your company should be able to acquire the trademark.

Don't forget that your brand is one of the most important aspects of your business. At Coddan we can help to protect your company, by registering trademarks. Feel free to contact us for further information.