Understanding Trademarks and Their Role in Intellectual Property Protection

Trademarks

Intellectual Property

Logos

what’s it all about – why does a Patent Agent charge unbelievably high fees?

Overview

Intellectual Property establishment and protection is big business for those involved. And it’s pretty important to those who own the IP too. Registration of a Trademark trumps owning the name through a co[any, so don’t kid yourselves you’re ok once your company has been formed, you do need to register your business name if you’re trading in any meaningful way using it.

The first thing to be very clear about is that protecting TEXT (this is text!) is pretty straightforward, subject to the labyrinthine procedures/rules that the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) has.

For example did you know that when you register your amazing new byline – zamaro zindingdo – for your new cleaning product, it is entirely possible for someone else to register the same words under another industry e.g. a brand of maps, and the IPO will allow this unless you protest, and then they might block someone pinching use of your phrase.

However if you have a logo/image/design that you’ve come up with e.g. a yellow shell with red lines on, then you have to register the graphical representation, muuuuuch harder, in fact a fritemare, subject to the even more labyrinthine procedures/rules that the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) has.

When Registering

THINK about whether you want it registered to your personal name, or your company, or maybe an IP ownership company.

If it’s in your name, and anyone objects/sues about the name, all your personal assets are on the line. It’s usually safer to use a limited company, but of course if you ever liquidate the company, and still want the trade mark, make sure you have moved ownership before issuing the company p45. Sadly all the big corporates have Trademark Agents retained by them, and they ambulance-chase all the time, to justify their massive fees to their bosses, and also to recover as much of their exorbitant fees from innocent bystanders (you!) as possible. So you might get a £50k bill if you lose defending your trademark, even if you only partly lose, so tread veeeery carefully.

In order to register go to the ipo website, and just follow their procedures – it’s simples (to a civil servant) !

The first tricky bit is deciding on a Class for your mark, and be careful as the fees escalate rapidly if you want to register under 10 Classes! Also the IPO will be much harder to register/deal with if you pick multiple Classes.

After filing in the form you file it online, and wait wait wait.

If someone objects once it’s published, the IPO will email you, and you have a limited time to respond.

If you have grand pretensions, you might wish to protect your mark in Europe say or the USA, and that’s a whole further ballgame – maybe use us instead to do all the running around/form-filling?

Other resources

Intellectual Property Office	0300 300 2000 information@ipo.gov.uk
Companies House	030 3123 4500 www.companieshouse.gov.uk
Federation of Small Businesses	https://www.fsb.org.uk/media-centre/news 0808 2020 888
Institute of Directors	020 7839 1233 http://www.iod.com/guidance

Any questions -email: abell@chartered.org   

for pdf of this note, click below

tech122trademarks.pdf

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All advice comment herein is entirely given in the interests of assisting you in understanding company administration in the uk. 

Anything you feel applies to you should be confirmed by taking your own professional advice based on your unique circumstances.

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