Trademarks

[Malh001]

Hi all,

Does anyone have any experience of trademarking a company name, or have the details of cost, difficulty, etc. Or the details of a company who specialise in this?

I've had a quick google and it seems there are books on how to do it and companies offering the service for £xxx, but as i have no experience of this, would like some good advice from the PH experts.

Cheers

[Glassman]

250-300 quid iirc

Make sure you research your mark well to ensure you don't risk passing off, sound (or look) similar to another mark etc etc

Fairly straight forward if you do your homework. Can take about six months.

http://www.ipo.gov.uk/whatis/whatis-tm.htm

[Golfman]

Used these guys for trademarks/patents for years, very good...

T.M Gregory & Co
26, Billing Rd, Northampton, Northamptonshire NN1 5AT
Tel: [phone]

[Malh001]

Thanks for that. I will look into both.

[Brown and Boris]

Malh001 said:

Hi all,

Does anyone have any experience of trademarking a company name, or have the details of cost, difficulty, etc. Or the details of a company who specialise in this?

I've had a quick google and it seems there are books on how to do it and companies offering the service for £xxx, but as i have no experience of this, would like some good advice from the PH experts.

Cheers

I have recently registered a few trademarks via the IPO web site simply by paying the IPO office the £200 plus £50 per category.
The IP office at Newport ae pretty helpful(if not always clued up) in ensuring you register under the right heading but can't say much officially about the liklihood of a TM being challenged. They warn you that you could cop for all the costs if someone mounts a clahhenege which suceeds which can be a bit scarey but I think that is one of those things they are obliged to point out.


As long as the TM doesn't conflict with a competirot it is usually alright.

[Glassman]

Brown and Boris said:

Malh001 said:

Hi all,

Does anyone have any experience of trademarking a company name, or have the details of cost, difficulty, etc. Or the details of a company who specialise in this?

I've had a quick google and it seems there are books on how to do it and companies offering the service for £xxx, but as i have no experience of this, would like some good advice from the PH experts.

Cheers

I have recently registered a few trademarks via the IPO web site simply by paying the IPO office the £200 plus £50 per category.
The IP office at Newport ae pretty helpful(if not always clued up) in ensuring you register under the right heading but can't say much officially about the liklihood of a TM being challenged. They warn you that you could cop for all the costs if someone mounts a clahhenege which suceeds which can be a bit scarey but I think that is one of those things they are obliged to point out.


As long as the TM doesn't conflict with a competirot it is usually alright.

That's some slip there... Or is it Welsh?

[JustinP1]

Brown and Boris said:

Malh001 said:

Hi all,

Does anyone have any experience of trademarking a company name, or have the details of cost, difficulty, etc. Or the details of a company who specialise in this?

I've had a quick google and it seems there are books on how to do it and companies offering the service for £xxx, but as i have no experience of this, would like some good advice from the PH experts.

Cheers

I have recently registered a few trademarks via the IPO web site simply by paying the IPO office the £200 plus £50 per category.
The IP office at Newport ae pretty helpful(if not always clued up) in ensuring you register under the right heading but can't say much officially about the liklihood of a TM being challenged. They warn you that you could cop for all the costs if someone mounts a clahhenege which suceeds which can be a bit scarey but I think that is one of those things they are obliged to point out.


As long as the TM doesn't conflict with a competirot it is usually alright.

I'd second that.

I went straight to the IPO rather than through a solicitor. If you trademark conflicts with others they do forcibly tell you so, and reject it.

Whether you get a a solicitor to do this for you, this doesn't mean that there will never be a claim against you anyway. It just depends whether the cost justifies itself to you. There was a recent conflict with my mark where I represented myself against a specialist solicitor and the fact that our mark was registered ultimately meant that we came out on top. Its worth £200.

[Malh001]

I might try going through the IPO first then. £200 seems good value.

Thanks for your replies.

[Brown and Boris]

One more thing, having the TM doesn't give you the right to exclusively use the name, or use it at all. firstly, you register it in classes so someone else may register it in another, unrelated class. I registrered a web based HR tool in that specific area despite the fact another company offer acounting software in that name.

I registered another trademark very easily earlier this year. Went through the various stages and publication stage (when you WILL get letters/invoices from companies trying to scam you for £400-£500 to register it EU wide). It was a derivative of a technical process, lets say "Nuclear Fisionality".

When we came to use the name our IPR lawyers said that as a US company had a dominant market position (hadn't regisitered the trademark) with a similar name ( Let's say "Nucleatr Fision") we could be accused of 'passing off'. They were not even offering the product they had named but were using a similar name as part of a large research project. We ended up not only changing the product name but placing disclaimers on our web site poiinting out that we were unrelated.

Not all about having the trademark.

[Malh001]

Thanks for the information B and B.

You always assume that once something is trademarked your fully protected, but possibly not.

[XB70]

JustinP1 said:

Brown and Boris said:

Malh001 said:

Hi all,

Does anyone have any experience of trademarking a company name, or have the details of cost, difficulty, etc. Or the details of a company who specialise in this?

I've had a quick google and it seems there are books on how to do it and companies offering the service for £xxx, but as i have no experience of this, would like some good advice from the PH experts.

Cheers

I have recently registered a few trademarks via the IPO web site simply by paying the IPO office the £200 plus £50 per category.
The IP office at Newport ae pretty helpful(if not always clued up) in ensuring you register under the right heading but can't say much officially about the liklihood of a TM being challenged. They warn you that you could cop for all the costs if someone mounts a clahhenege which suceeds which can be a bit scarey but I think that is one of those things they are obliged to point out.


As long as the TM doesn't conflict with a competirot it is usually alright.

I'd second that.

I went straight to the IPO rather than through a solicitor. If you trademark conflicts with others they do forcibly tell you so, and reject it. /quote]

Not any more. The UK-IPO ceased absolute grounds rejections from October 2008 - now, they will tell you that there are earlier marks that possibily conflict with yours and, if you decided to proceed, will automatically notify UK rights holders and CTM rights holders who have 'opted in'.

Drop me a PM if you have any queries.