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Tim BamfordPartner
Ensuring your trademarks are registered and protected prevents others from exploiting your most critical assets, such as your brand name, logo, goodwill and reputation. We can help you create a robust trademark strategy to distinguish your brand from competitors and protect it from external threats.
What is the meaning of a trademark in the UK?
In the UK, a trademark is any design, logo, word or shape that has an association with a product or business, and thus distinguishes it from other products and businesses. You can trademark a variety of things, including business names, brand names, slogans, logos, and jingles.
To be legally enforceable, a trademark needs to be registered and renewed every 10 years. If you do not register the trademark, anyone can copy your design. This has the potential to mislead consumers and damage your reputation, by creating an association with your brand reputation that simply is not there.
The ® can be used as soon as you have registered your trademark. While it is not essential to display this symbol, it does serve as evidence that the mark is registered and cannot be legally copied. The ™ symbol can be used if you consider yourself as having a trade mark but haven’t registered it.
What happens if there is a trademark dispute?
If someone uses your trademark without permission, or if you think someone is using or trying to use a trade mark similar to yours, you may have a claim for intellectual property infringement. There are various remedies you can seek, including:
- An injunction to stop the copycat trademark
- An obligation to cease and desist
- Compensation for any losses you have sustained
- Destruction of items that breach your trademark rights
Even if your trademark is unregistered, we can generally rely on the action passing off to protect the goodwill in the trademark. We have the specialist expertise to advise and assist you so please contact us at any time.
Why choose Collyer Bristow as your trademark lawyer?
Our trademark disputes lawyers can advise you on the best options for protecting your trademarks. Our services include:
- Identifying what may qualify for trademark protection
- Advice on whether your trademark should be registered, and how to go about it
- Defending your trademark against infringers
- Helping you exploit your trademark by licensing it to third parties to use
- Advice on the assignment of trademark
- Passing off claims
Litigation can be costly, and our trademark solicitors will always seek alternative dispute resolution to reduce the amount of cost and time of the proceedings. We’re very experienced in trademark disputes and can solve many problems before they even arise.
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