Are Trademarks a Metaphor for Life?
There is one thing we hear more than almost anything else when somebody approaches us about protecting their brand: “I want to stop people from using my name, my logo or my tagline.” And that is absolutely the right instinct. If you have spent years building a business, developing a reputation and creating goodwill around […]
Can You Protect Your Brand Abroad Later? How the Trademark Priority Period Works
How the trademark priority period works: file in the UK first, then take six months to file abroad and keep your original date. Apple’s iPhone Duo shows how.
Who Should Own a Trademark: You or Your Company?
The ownership problem rarely appears while everybody agrees. It appears when a founder leaves, a company takes investment, a relationship breaks down, the business encounters financial difficulty or somebody wants to sell. At that point, discovering that the trademark belongs to the wrong person can become expensive. We have seen businesses invest considerable time and […]
Trademarks When Selling or Buying a Business
When somebody buys a business, they are rarely buying its equipment, website and customer list alone. They may be buying the name customers recognise, the reputation attached to it and the trust the business has built. That value sits in the brand, but a buyer needs to know that the seller owns it and has […]
Airbnb v bnb-side: How Far Can Trademark Rights Extend Over Descriptive Words?
A trademark can become enormously valuable as a business grows. A registered trademark is a business asset in its own right, capable of being sold, licensed or transferred, and its commercial value can increase significantly as recognition, reputation and goodwill develop around the brand. For some businesses, the trademark may eventually become one of the […]
If Your Business Partner Walked Tomorrow, Who Owns the Brand Name?
Most founders could tell you who owns the shares. Far fewer could tell you, without checking, whose name the trademark is registered in. It is the sort of detail that sits quietly in the background for years and then matters enormously, usually on the worst possible day. Who legally owns a trademark, the person or […]
The Name Was Free at Companies House. Does That Mean I Can Use It?
You had an idea for a name. You checked it at Companies House, it was free, you incorporated, and you started building. That check told you something useful. It just did not tell you what most people think it told you. If a name is free at Companies House, can I use it? Not necessarily. […]
What Happens to a Trademark in Administration?
What happens to a trademark in administration? Who owns it, how administrators sell brands, what buyers really get and why recording the transfer matters.
Someone in Another Country Is Using My Brand. Can I Stop Them?
A customer sends you a link. There’s a business on the other side of the world using your name, your colours, and in the worst cases your actual website copy. The first question is always the same: can I make them stop? The answer depends almost entirely on one thing, and it isn’t who was […]
Why Do Some Brands Have Different Names in Different Countries?
Why do some brands have different names in different countries? Hungry Jack’s, Lynx and Walkers explained, and how to check your name before you expand.
