Register your Trademark
Trademark
Are you looking to get your trade mark registered or struggling with similar existing trademarks?
Protect your business
What is a trademark?
Why should we register a Trade Mark?
- Trade marks don’t necessarily need to be registered but doing so anyway provides brands with a solid, secure form of protection from copycats.
- Registering a trade mark allows it’s owner exclusive rights over it in its specified class(es) of goods/services that it is registered in. If anyone, knowingly or unknowingly, uses that trade mark without securing permission, they will be ordered to cease use immediately regardless of whether the owner has suffered any losses due to this. If the owner has suffered and loss, the transgressor will be held liable.
- If you try to proceed with using an unregistered trade mark, you put yourself at risk of your competitors using yours and registering it as their own which would then force you to rebrand. That’s not the only risk either: leaving your trade mark unprotected will endanger the goodwill in your brand. You would have to rely on the unreliable common law of ‘passing off’ which places a larger burden on you, the victim, to prove customer confusion regarding your brand and that the transgressing company is deriving benefit from the use of your trade mark.
- A registered trade mark is a valuable asset that you can allow others to use by selling or licensing it to them in return for a fee.
- And that’s not all: having a registered trade mark allows you to hold transgressors legally accountable in front of authorities as well as solve many other civil issues.
- The registration lasts for 10 years, but it can be renewed an indefinite number of times granted that it is in use in the class(es) it is registered against.
Why Register A trader Mark?
Every successful business has a secure competitive edge that allows to set itself, its products & services apart from the crowd.
Protect
Protect your brand & business from competitors
Enforce
Make it easier and cheaper to enforce your protection.
Verified
Demonstrate to customers & clients that you take your brand seriously
Add Value
Registered trade marks are an asset that add value to your business
Touchstone IP Services
TRADE MARK RENEWAL
Easily and quickly renew your registration with our trade mark renewal service
Trade Mark Infringement
Allow Touchstone to help you resolve all trade mark infringement issues
Trade Mark Research
Before registration, we will provide you with a detailed, in-depth search report
Design Registration
Register your designs in the UK or across the EU by using our hassle-free registration service
Patent Registration
Register your new & innovative inventions using our registration service
Copyright Infringement
Let Touchstone help you deal with any possible copyright infringement cases in the UK
Trademark Registration Service
Step 1: Consultation
Our experts will advise you on the correct route to take with your proposed trademark, its registration and classification to guarantee that it complies with the Trade Marks Act.
Step 2 - Search
We will thoroughly search through the UK register and Community Trade Mark Register (EU) to guarantee that no conflicts will arise with already registered marks.
Step 3 - Application
Applying to the registry of trademarks from which point onwards your brand will be protected.
Step 4 - Registration
Once your trademark has been registered and listed in the registry, you will be provided a certificate for an initial period of 10 years.
Advantages of Trademark Registration
Your trademark is your intellectual property: it represents your brand, business, goods, and services. And registering it is the best way to protect it and all the rest as well. Touchstone has a team of trademark specialists that have years of experience helping numerous companies get registered and monitor the status and safety of their trademarks as well. There are numerous benefits to registering your trademark as early as possible.
Proof of ownership - avoiding costly passing off actions
Although you can operate under an unregistered trademark and rely on its rights the same way you can with a registered one, enforcing those rights however is much harder and more costly than it is for the latter.
In case of issues, the owner of the unregistered trademark would be required to bring action against the transgressing party and show that:
- The offending party has or is enjoying goodwill and/or repute using the sign.
- The other party has misused the sign in a way that could possibly fool the public into thinking the goods/services being offered are of the owner’s.
- The misuse must be proven to cause damage or have the potential to cause damage, to the applicant’s goodwill, brand, or repute.
There is a high standard of evidence required for ‘Passing Off’ which can be very costly for the applicant both in terms of time and money since the entire burden of providing proof is placed on them. In contrast, the requirements for a registered trademark when it comes to settling disputes are very low and hence much easier to provide. The applicant then simply has to prove that their registration pre-dates the transgressing party’s use of the sign, that the sign being used is similar enough to their own, and that it is being used for products/services the owner has registered their mark in.
Registered trademarks
As your goods or services become more established in the market, so does the value and goodwill of your trademark. That value is comparable to the historic cost of creating, building and establishing your brand and can be quantified with the cost of creating a similar or equivalent trademark.
As the owner of the trademark, you will have a sole statutory monopoly over the usage of your mark in the class(es) it is registered under. As such it as an asset you can profit off of from selling, franchising or licensing it to others.
Frequently Asked Questions
Because We Server Many Businesses Across the United Kingdom
Registering your company name only grants you protection from other companies being created with that name. However, it does not protect you from someone using it as a trading or product name.
Similar to owning the company name, owning the domain name also does not give your trade mark any legal protection. For that, you will need to register your trade mark.
In such cases where a party has been using your desired mark but also have not gotten that mark registered, they may have acquired prior rights to the trade mark. If you then try to get that trade mark registered for yourself, they could try to oppose or invalidate your registration. If both parties want to settle this dispute, they would each have to prove that they have built goodwill under that mark and that the other party could damage this goodwill through public confusion by using the mark themselves. If the third party successfully wins this dispute, they will be allowed to continue using the mark as before but will not be allowed to expand usage into restricted areas.
Handling and settling such disputes is a long and costly process and a very good reason why you should get your trade mark registered as soon as possible.
In short, as soon as possible. You should get a full trademark clearance on not only the proposed trademark but also the desired company name and domain names you may want. Like company names, domain names cannot be reserved. Instead they are issued on a first come first served basis which one needs to be mindful of.
Once this initial search has been conducted and cleared, without conflict from any existing or pending marks, the proposed trade mark can then be allowed to proceed with registration.
Protection can start as early as the application’s filing date. The filing date can be used as evidence that the mark was being used by the applicant. If the registration is successful, the registration date is back-dated to the application’s filing date.
Hopeful applicants are strongly advised to seek consultation about how viable for registration their mark is before applying. It is impossible to register a mark that is directly linked to the goods/services like the image of a necklace for a jewellery service. Additionally, it is impossible to register marks that include protected emblems like national flags or the Olympic rings. For registration, you must submit the application form along with a high quality copy of the mark. This copy will be used for the mark on the register as well, if registered successfully. If the quality is not up to par, a camera-ready copy can be requested. The concerned Registry will cross check whether the proposed mark qualifies as a trademark and that there are no earlier conflicting marks. They will also verify the class(es) you have applied in and the requirements for each. The Examiner at the Registry could challenge the classes and require you to make amendments. Once it has passed all this examination, it will be published and there will be a three month period in which other companies or traders may be allowed to challenge or raise objections to your trademark. After the end of the publication period, a successful mark will be registered and a certificate will be issued.
As of recently, applications in the UK are processed much the same as EU Marks. When applying for registration of an EU Trade Mark, earlier pending marks are not listed on the Examination Report as the basis for the refusal of the mark. These marks are only by the EU Intellectual Property Office on absolute grounds. Absolute grounds means that the mark is examined based on whether it constitutes a trade mark. Whether or not it is distinctive, unique, descriptive or whether or not it is in accordance with public policy. It is then the responsibility of the proprietors of already registered or pending marks to raise objections to the proposed mark during the three months after publication. For registration beyond the first class, an additional fee for each extra class is charged in the UK and EU. Furthermore, fees for an EU mark are higher than those for the UK.
The quickest UK registration can take about six months from application to registration. For EU marks you should allow at least 12 months, but the protection date starts at the application date.
The shortest minimum estimated wait for UK registration can take almost 6 months from the filing date to registration. For EU marks, this period can take at least 12 months. However, the protection date in both cases starts from the application date.
To file an application in the UK or EU, we would require the mark itself (with copies of any of the devices/logos), the specification or class under which the goods or services fall, and written instructions from the proprietor to proceed. In case of an application for International Marks outside of the EU, you would be required to provide the name of the country so we can look into the best way to proceed with the registration either by applying directly or via the World Intellectual Property Organisation.
A newly registered trade mark has to be put to legitimate commercial use within a maximum of 5 years after registration otherwise the owner puts themselves at risk of losing the mark if a third party submits an application for revocation.
If a trade mark has been successfully registered but has not been used for genuine commercial purposes, an application can be submitted to the UK IPO to have the existing mark revoked.
ANY QUESTION ? OR WANT TO GET STARTED ?
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