A registered trademark isn't untouchable. It can be cancelled if it's not being used, if it never ought to have been registered, or if it was filed in bad faith, and that can happen in a stand-alone challenge or as a counterattack when the owner sues. These trademark cancellation cases show how the UK courts decide those challenges, and what they mean whether you're seeking trademark invalidation of a rival's mark or defending your own.
What is trademark cancellation?
There are three main routes:
- Non-use. A registration that isn't genuinely used for the goods or services it covers can be revoked, either in full or for the parts that aren't used.
- Invalidity. A mark that simply describes the goods, isn't distinctive, breaks a rule protecting certain words, or clashes with an earlier right can be declared invalid, as if it had never been registered.
- Bad faith. A filing made dishonestly, or with no intention of using the mark for what it claims, can be struck down in whole or in part.
On the other side, a long period of honest coexistence, or genuine use, even on a small scale, can keep a registration alive.
Filing far more than you'll use: bad faith
SkyKick v Sky
Sky's SKY registrations were found partly invalid because it never intended to use them for huge swathes of the goods and services they covered. The Supreme Court restored the earlier findings of bad faith. Filing across huge categories you don't intend to trade in can cost you part of the registration.
Read our summaryLidl v Tesco
When Lidl sued, Tesco counterclaimed that Lidl's wordless logo trademark had been registered in bad faith. The Court of Appeal revived that counterclaim, ruling that it had a real prospect of success and ought not to have been struck out. Registering a logo you never actually use, just to widen your legal reach, can be challenged as bad faith, and that challenge is hard to knock out early.
Read our summaryThe CHINA WHITE case
An applicant filed to register CHINA WHITE knowing a nightclub already served a cocktail of that name, and relied on a third party's unchecked claim to own it. The Court of Appeal confirmed this was a bad faith application. Knowing someone else already uses a name, and not checking a claim to own it, can itself be bad faith.
Summary coming soonUse it or lose it: non-use
The ESB case
Fuller's E.S.B. trademark was validly registered, even though some people linked the letters with Extra Special Bitter. But the registration was revoked for non-use outside bitter beer. A name can work as a trademark even when some customers use it descriptively, and a registration only stays as wide as your actual use.
Summary coming soonGoemar v La Mer
Very modest sales to a single independent UK importer, which never reached retail customers, were enough genuine use to save a registration from revocation for non-use. Real wholesale or import sales can protect a trademark even if the goods never reach the shops.
Summary coming soonDescriptive marks and protected words
Starbucks v Sky
The claimant's NOW trademark was held invalid because it described the instant, on-demand nature of its TV service. Its passing off claim against Sky's NOW TV also failed, because free viewing of its programmes by people in the UK didn't create protectable goodwill here. A mark that simply describes your service is vulnerable to being cancelled.
Summary coming soonDairy UK v Oatly
Oatly's POST MILK GENERATION trademark was struck down because it used the protected term "milk" for non-dairy products, and it couldn't rely on the exception for descriptive marks. Using a protected dairy word anywhere in a trademark for plant-based goods can be enough to invalidate it.
Read our summaryDefending a registration: long coexistence
Budvar v Anheuser-Busch
In the long-running Budweiser dispute between two brewers, the Court of Appeal rejected one defence but referred key questions on honest concurrent use and acquiescence (knowingly putting up with the other side's use for a long time) to the Court of Justice of the European Union. Long coexistence with a similar name doesn't on its own rule out a later challenge.
Summary coming soonBudvar v Anheuser-Busch
Three years later, the Court of Appeal ruled that decades of honest side by side use of the same Budweiser name by two different brewers meant neither could invalidate the other's registration, even for identical goods. Long, honest coexistence can block a cancellation claim, but only where the challenger can't show real damage.
Summary coming soonWhy a registration is worth defending
Lidl v Tesco
The Court of Appeal upheld findings that Tesco's blue and yellow Clubcard Prices logo infringed Lidl's trademarks and was passing off, because it sent a false message about price matching. A copyright finding was overturned. A colour and shape combination can be protected well enough to win, with no words copied.
Read our summaryThatchers v Aldi
Aldi's Taurus Cloudy Lemon Cider packaging, closely modelled on Thatchers' can design, took unfair advantage of Thatchers' registered trademark, even though shoppers weren't confused about which product they were buying. Copying a rival's distinctive packaging to bring their brand to mind can infringe without any confusion.
Read our summaryTVIS v Howserv
The Court of Appeal overturned the High Court and held that the PETSURE brand was confusingly similar to the registered trademark VETSURE. Differences in meaning between two names won't save you if customers are actually getting confused.
Read our summaryWhat I’d take from these trademark cancellation cases
- 1What I'd take from this is that a registration is only as strong as your use of it. Cover what you sell, and keep the evidence that you sell it.
- 2Broad filings with no plan behind them are a target. When you sue on them, expect the other side to look for a bad faith or non-use counterclaim.
- 3Descriptive names are fragile. They can be cancelled just when you need them most.
- 4Genuine use doesn't have to be big, but it has to be real.
- 5A registration that survives a challenge is a powerful thing, which is why it's worth getting the filing right first time.
If a registration is blocking your name, we can look at trademark invalidation on the grounds above, or trademark cancellation where the owner isn't using it. If you're filing your own, a trademark search shows what's already there, you can register a trademark that covers what you actually do, and trademark monitoring flags new filings that could clash.
Book a free call, email enquiries@thetrademarkhelpline.com or ring 0161 833 5400.
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This page is for information purposes only and does not constitute trademark advice or guidance. Case summaries are drawn from published UK judgments; summaries drafted with AI assistance and checked by The Trademark Helpline (how we write these). Last reviewed 30 October 2026.
