A trademark is your brand and can be your most valuable asset.

What is a Trademark?

A trademark is a sign which can distinguish your goods and services from those of your competitors.

A trademark is your brand and can be your most valuable asset.

A trademark can be a logo, name, a colour, smell or sound- or a combination of these. To be registrable as a trademark your mark must be distinctive and non descriptive i.e. I can’t register my hairdresser shop and The Hairdressers!

Although your trademark will not be refused if a similar mark exists, an earlier rights owner can oppose your trademark and even sue you for trademark infringement. So it’s crucial to check that your name is available. How can you do this?

There are a number of ways:

1. You can search for free on our website http://www.trademarkroom.com/ This will tell you if your trademark may be available in the UK or EU. Whilst this is useful and a good starting point it’s best to have a full search and advice report.
2. Check yourself for free on the UKIPO database: https://www.gov.uk/search-for-trademark
3. Pay us to do it for you! You can pay for a full UK/EU Trademark search and advice report that will tell us a) is your mark registrable b) what conflicts may exist- plus an analysis of the results c) what classes you need d) an assessment of the likelihood of success. We can also search national EU country databases such as France, Germany, Spain.

If we have advised you should file a trademark then we can apply on your behalf in your country of choice. Please see here for costs: http://www.trademarkroom.com/our-prices

Trademark Registration

If you are successful in your application then you have a monopoly over your chosen mark for the goods and services claimed. It is much  easier to stop a third party using your mark with a trademark than to rely on unregistered rights. This is particulary difficult for start-ups who may yet have built up sufficient reputation in their brand.

Trademark symbols

 ™ This can mean that the mark is your trademark which you will defend but that it is not as yet protected with a registered trademark.

You can use the registered trademark symbol   ®  once your trademark has been registered. It tells your competitors to ‘BACK OFF’! This is your mark and you will defend the rights to be the sole user of this brand.