Use trade marks in your business
Defend your trade mark
If you trade using a distinctive logo, slogan or anything else that forms a trade mark, you're entitled to defend it. A trade mark can be a valuable part of your business and is well worth protecting.
You're strongly advised to seek legal advice when defending a trade mark. A suitable trade mark attorney or patent attorney should be able to help. Find a trade mark attorney on the Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys (ITMA) website - Opens in a new window.
If your trade mark isn't registered
If anybody tries to represent their goods or services as yours by adopting the same or a similar trade mark it's known as passing off and you can take legal action against them.
However, to be successful you have to prove that:
- the public associates your trade mark with your product or service
- the other person's goods or services have been mistaken for your own, thereby damaging your business
This can be hard to prove and passing off actions can be expensive. If you are successful, you can have an injunction served on the person passing off and be awarded damages and costs.
If your trade mark is registered
You have an automatic right to sue for infringement if anybody uses your registered trade mark - or one similar - for the goods and services for which you registered it.
There's no need to prove that the public associates your trade mark with your product or service, or that someone else's goods or services have been mistaken for your own.
A court can make a restraining order to stop the infringement and you can be awarded damages and costs.
The registrar of trade marks can register a trade mark that is similar to, or the same as an earlier trade mark (known as relative grounds for refusal) providing the holder of the original trade mark does not object to the registration.
You are responsible for enforcing your own intellectual property rights. If someone tries to register a trade mark that is similar to, or the same as your own trade mark, you must decide what action you want to take. You should take advice from your trade mark attorney or patent attorney.
Subjects covered in this guide
- Introduction
- What is a trade mark?
- How to register a trade mark
- Registering a trade mark outside the UK
- Defend your trade mark
- Respect other people's trade marks
- Trade marks and domain names
- Here's how I deal with trade mark infringements
- Here's how I protected my idea with a trade mark (Flash video)
Intellectual Property Office Central Enquiry Unit
08459 500 505
Actions
- Trade mark law information on the Intellectual Property Office - Opens in a new window
- Search for a trade mark attorney on the ITMA website - Opens in a new window
- Search for a patent attorney on the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys website - Opens in a new window
- Intellectual property healthcheck tool on the Intellectual Property Office website (registration required) - Opens in a new window
- Manage your personal list of starting-up tasks with our Business start-up organiser
