trademarks/registered design

trademarks

Our team handles UK and Community trade marks and registered design applications, oppositions and revocation applications, as well as managing trademark portfolios and advising on brand strategy.

• Can the mark be registered as a trade mark?

The proposed mark must be distinctive and not purely descriptive or consist solely of indicative words or an established term within a trade or business. A descriptive mark may, however, be registerable if it has become distinctive through established use.

• Initial steps – trade mark searches

You can be forewarned of possible objections to the registration of a mark by carrying out a search of the marks which have been registered or applied for. See our useful links for details on UK Intellectual Property Office and Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (OHIM).

registered design

Some but not all designs are capable of protection through registration, either in the UK only or across the European Community.

• To be eligible for registration a design must be new and original, not purely functional, and have aesthetic qualities.

The main advantage of a registered design over an unregistered design is that an unregistered design can be used only to protect against copying, whilst a registered design provides a monopoly right regardless of whether an infringer came up with their design independently with no copying.

The registration procedure is relatively quick and cheap.

We are able to advise on registrability of designs, deal with registration, exploitation and protection of your rights.

See our useful links for details on The Patent office and OHIM.

For more information, please contact Jill Bainbridge, head of our Intellectual Property team, on 023 8085 7160; email jill.bainbridge@bllaw.co.uk