Did you see the news earlier this year about Victoria Beckham owning Brooklyn Beckham’s name as a trademark? It is about to get interesting all over again, because that trademark is heading towards its renewal window, and it turns out to be one of the clearest real-world lessons in trademark ownership and trademark renewal that a UK business owner could ask for.
The Beckham trademark, briefly
Back in 2016, Victoria Beckham registered her teenage son’s name, Brooklyn, as a UK trademark, with the registration completing in 2017. The filing reportedly covered clothing, beauty, cosmetics, toys and entertainment, the commercial categories a famous name tends to get used in. The important detail is that the application was made in Victoria Beckham’s name, as the parent of a then-minor, which means she, not Brooklyn, technically holds the rights. Ten years on, with the renewal falling due around the end of 2026, the obvious question is whether she renews it or lets it lapse, and against the backdrop of reported family tension, the headlines almost write themselves. She holds similar registrations for Romeo, Cruz and Harper too, so this is clearly a family that takes brand protection seriously.
A trademark belongs to whoever registers it
It reads like clickbait, but underneath it is a genuinely useful point about how trademarks actually work. A trademark belongs to whoever registers it. Not to the person whose name it is, not automatically to the business that uses it, but to the individual or organisation named on the application. Registering early to stop other people cashing in on a valuable name is, on the face of it, a sensible and protective move. The complication is simply who ends up holding that right, and whether ownership should ever change hands.
Who actually owns your trademark?
Here is where it stops being a celebrity story and starts being your story. Founders constantly assume the brand “belongs to the company”. Then you actually look, and the mark sits in one founder’s personal name, or a co-founder’s, or it was never registered by anyone at all and is simply being used. That gap tends to surface at the worst possible moment. A partner leaving. An investor running due diligence. A sale. Buyers always check who owns the brand before they buy, and if the answer is messy, it slows the deal down or quietly shaves money off the price.
Trademark renewal: the deadline people forget
The other half of the Beckham story is the renewal window, and renewals are where a surprising number of perfectly good trademarks quietly die. A UK trademark lasts for ten years and then needs to be renewed, again and again, to stay alive. Miss the deadline and the protection can lapse, which can leave the door open for somebody else to move in on a name you have spent years building. Knowing exactly when your trademark is due, and making sure it is renewed in the right name, is unglamorous but genuinely important. Proper trademark registration and renewal is the sort of thing that should be diarised well in advance, not left to chance.
What I would actually do
The fix is not complicated. Know whose name your trademark is in, make sure it is the correct name, and do not let it quietly lapse when renewal comes around. If you are not certain where you stand, a short trademark audit will tell you exactly what you own, in whose name, across which classes, and when it next needs renewing, long before any of it becomes a problem.
So while the rest of the internet waits to see what the Beckhams do, the more useful question is the one I would put to you. If you stopped and checked today, whose name is your brand actually registered in?
