How to Register a Trademark?

Registering a trademark may seem like an unnecessary hassle. Yet leave your business name unregistered and you risk your competitors using it to steal your customers. Trademarks provide essential legal protection, so knowing how to trademark a name in the UK is a vital step in securing your business. If you are unsure how to trademark a business name in the UK, or whether your business needs it, discover more below.

What Is a Trademark?

A trademark can be any sign that identifies you as the owner of your goods or services to make it clear they belong to you.

A clever trademark can add tremendous value to a brand, ensuring it stands out from competitors and provides credibility to its products and services. Registering a trademark is one of the most effective ways to protect your name, brand and work. A trademark allows you to distinguish your goods and services from those of your competitors and are valuable assets.

Once registered, you can use the ® symbol to show that your brand and logo are protected. Registered trademarks can be sold, traded and even used as security on loans and mortgages. If you trademark a name, you can also license it to other businesses – such as setting up a franchise – and rely on the trademark to prevent other companies from imitating your brand, services or products.

Does Your Business Need to Register a Trademark?

Regarding protecting the intellectual property of your business, there’s not much that can beat registering a trademark correctly.

In 2019, the IPO received a record 107,527 trademark applications , a 12.9% increase from 2018. Trademarking is an important step for your business to take. If you don’t register the trademark for your brand, someone else might do. A UK trademark registration will protect your rights in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and is ideal if you don’t trade outside of the UK.

How to Register a Trademark?

There are several steps you should follow to register a trademark:

Know what you are trademarking

The first step in protecting your business is to know exactly what counts as a trademark. A good sense check is to identify the elements of your brand that are unique to you. These can be a combination of words, logos, symbols, colours, images and even sounds. If a particular combination represents your brand — for example, a product name such as McDonald’s Big Mac hamburger — you should consider trademarking it.

Conduct a UK trademark search

Before applying to trademark a name in the UK, it’s vital to check whether existing or similar trademarks exist. You can search for existing and expired trademarks using the UK Intellectual Property Office’s (UKIPO) database.

Understand trademark classes

Registering a trademark business name involves choosing the class of goods and services you want the trademark to cover. There are 45 different trademark classes: 34 covering goods and products and 11 covering services. You can review the full class list at the World Intellectual Property Organisation. Each class covers different industries and products. You must pick the relevant class for your business when you trademark a name.

Trademark a name in the UK

Once you’ve established what you want to trademark and the classes you wish to register in, you can apply to the UK Intellectual Property Office. You can register online with the UKIPO or trademark a name using Form TM3 via post. There will be associated costs of registering a trademark and you can expect the process to take around four months in total if there are no objections to your application.

Ready to Register Your Trademark?

Whether you want to find out more about registering a trademark or are ready to start the process, at Mint Formations , we can take away all the stress that comes with registering. We offer standard and bespoke packages to meet your needs and can help through every step of the process to acquire your business trademark.

Are you ready to register a trademark? The company experts at Mint Formations will provide you with guidance and help you get your business registered fast so you can start doing what you love.

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