Brands

The external face of an organisation, its brand, is often a hugely valuable asset.

Ensuring you value what your brand brings to your company, and understand what you could lose if you couldn’t use your brand, will be an important factor in your road to success.

Here we explain what a good brand looks like from a legal perspective, why considering trade mark protection for your brand is so important, how you can get protection for your brand, and the implications of this on other aspects of your company’s online existence.

Do I have any protection for my brand and name?

If you’re selling your goods or services under a brand name or symbol so that people can recognise that you’ve made it or you’re providing the services associated with it, then you’re using that as a trade mark, even if you haven’t registered it as such. In addition, you might have unregistered trade mark protection […]

What makes a strong brand (legally)?

You are choosing a new brand for your flagship product.  It could be a word.  It could be that logo you’ve been working on.  But what makes your brand strong?  Do your customers recognise that goods or services bearing that brand emanate from you?  Importantly, will the recognition lead to repeat business? Let’s start with […]

How do I register a trade mark?

Here are our six steps to obtaining a registered trade mark, such as in the UK. Step 1 Pick a Mark.  That might be a name, logo, sound, movement, colour or other identifier of your goods, or services. Step 2 Identify goods or services for which the mark applies.  You have to select the goods […]

How do I protect my brand around the world?

Your end goal is world domination.  A household name spanning continents, recognised by all.  But how can you enforce this? There is no ‘worldwide trade mark’ as such.  Instead you would need to file applications to cover each territory individually.  In some cases, it is possible to obtain protection for several countries at once e.g. […]

I’ve got the domain name and Twitter handle for my brand, isn’t that enough?

No! Firstly, just because you have a domain name or social media handle doesn’t give you any right to use the trade mark. Someone else could own the registered trade mark for that name or even just a similar name and that registration could be used to block your use of the domain name. Hence, […]

Am I free to use my brand?

You’ve chosen a trade mark to use on the goods and services you provide. You’re preparing to launch. There’s one big question… are you free to use that trade mark? It is important to undertake trade mark searches before adopting your mark. These searches are significantly more in depth than, say, using an internet search […]