What is a Trademark?

Trademarks of the companies are identified as a badge of ownership they have been created. It is shown in the form of a unique image or a label that can be recognised and associated with a company, and it allows it to distinguish itself from other companies within the same industry or outside.

A company trademark is a significant piece of a company's identity. The majority of the new businesses, which are going through the company formation process for the first time, might have already worked for their new company's trademark. After registering your company's trademark, protecting it will be one of the best advantages of forming your own limited company. This is because the trademark of your company can be linked to your company and not only to you as an individual. If you ever have to decide to leave or sell off your company then this trademark will still be there with the company even after you leave it.

A trademark can be made in many forms, it could be a simple icon image, wordings that are stylised, or a combination of some shapes, colours and logos that can be utilised to associate your brand.

Trademarks can be registered for protecting any act of copying. After a trademark has been registered officially, it can be used by any other company. However, depending upon the class of your trademark, it can happen that another firm will register a similar or identical trademark. For instance, there are 45 different classes of trademark, so two different companies choose to register with a Lion trademark, but the name of them will be different like one could be Lion mechanics and van repairs and the other one will be Lion catering supplies.

You must know the right class to register your trademark with. If you register your trademark under an inappropriate class, then your trademark might become insignificant. Besides, if you have 45 different classes to choose from, then you can find out how to choose the right class for your goods and services here. Moreover, you can also get help with defining your appropriate class, if you find it difficult to classify yourself.

Trademark registration process

While registering a trademark for your company, you need to follow certain rules. For instance, your trademark must not include common surnames or geographical names. This will help to avoid confusion. In addition, you are also prohibited from using anything that could relate to any kind of royal patronage or links to the royal family. To protect your brand's name you must register your trademark.

For continuing to use protected trademark indefinitely, it must:

• It must be renewed every ten years.
• Must be recognised as a trademark in some countries.
• It should not become more generic such as nouns and verbs that are used commonly.
• It should be used in commerce.

Check for any infringements in trademark

Prior to choosing your trademark, you need to ensure that your chosen design does not infringe on anyone else's registered trademark. However, it might depend upon the class you want to choose. To check whether your desired trademark is already being used by another firm, you can search the UK Government website for that trademark. For searching the trademark, you need to provide a trademark number, or some specific keywords, phrases or images. Moreover, you can check the intellectual property office online journal to find trademark applications accepted in the past few weeks.

Utilise correct use of your trademark

When you register your trademark, ensure that it is used correctly. Your trademark is significant as it created an identification of your goods and services to your potent customers. This is the reason you must check on the competing companies in your sector to ensure that no one infringes on your trademark by using something similar to yours. If you find out that another company has infringed your company's trademark, you can seek help from a solicitor that specialises in the UK trademark to bring charges against the company that infringes your trademark.