Trade Mark names and logo's cost and time scale.

[golddiggerguy]

Has anyone here registered a Trade Mark name and/or logo?

I have fired an email to my solicitor asking how much and how long, but wondered if anyone on here has gone down that road.


e.g. LEEDS HOSTING with a logo to go with it. (yes it is just an example)

And I know I can't trade mark town names or generic stuff so prob would have to be LEEDSHOSTING and the logo reflect the space in between.

Cheers in advance

[Jeewhizz]

Takes 6 months, and you can do it yourself. I know several people who have, and said it wasn't difficult!

£200 for the privilege, and £50 for each additional class!

[golddiggerguy]

Pricing not bad but time scale a bit long.
Any ideas, if I submit a name can someone else submit the same name afterwards while it's been processed?

[GreyWing]

Originally Posted by golddiggerguy

Pricing not bad but time scale a bit long.
Any ideas, if I submit a name can someone else submit the same name afterwards while it's been processed?

I think the protection once granted is retrospective to the day you applied.

[woopwoop]

Yep I went through the process of getting a UK trademark.
Very easy to do it yourself. There's some very useful pdf guides at http://www.patent.gov.uk (I think. Just click on trademarks and follow it through)

I wouldn't be bothered about it taking 6 months because like greywing said the date of your registered trademark is the day you applied. My application was through in about 4 months.

I applied for an extra class, so i cost me £250 total.

Registering a trademark acts as a deterrent if people are thinking about copying it, plus it gives you an actual date should you need to prove that you were using the name in trade on a certain date. It also gives you the right to use the (r) symbol next to your trademark.

However, even if you don't register your mark, but are using it in trade, you still have unregistered trademark protection. So anyone who infringes, you can fight them away. Even if your mark isn't registered, you can still use the 'TM' symbol next to your mark.

So don't be worried about the 4-6 month application time if you decide to go ahead. Many of my ideas and site names etc. aren't worth investing £200+ a pop each time, but I still know that I have the unregistered trademark protection.

A final bit of info is that if you do want to go the whole hog and register it, try and get all the classes covered that you'll use it under. That's £50 extra each class at the time. You can't add classes later for £50. You'd need to start another application after the fact to add extra classes (£200+)

Good luck.

Any questions give me a shout, but you really don't need a solicitor for this.

[golddiggerguy]

Cheers for that advise. Thats a help and a relief.

Will set the ball rolling on Monday I think.

[accelerator]

I've also done it myself. It is possible to do, but I wouldn't say it was easy in that it does take quite a bit of reading and effort. I just looked at the trademark descriptions of other similar businesses to get an idea of how I should word the application.