Do I need to trademark my LTD company?

[thesmileyone]

I own a LTD company in the UK, it is a 4 letter name and I own the .co.uk and .ltd.uk for it. I have owned both for a year and a half which is how long the company has been running.

To secure my company do I need to TM it? I have checked on IPO and it is not trademarked currently.

What stops someone buying the .com of the company name, registering a business as **** something or other LTD, and then claiming that my domains belong to them?

For the sake of £170 is it worth trademarking? Does anyone know how much more it costs to protect it internationally as well as just the EU?

Thanks!

 

[woopwoop]

It really depends where you see your business going.

I have a UK trademark and EU design patents. Looking back I wasted money on the EU stuff and I probably didn't need the UK trademark.

If you have been using a name/mark in business you would have established unregistered trademark rights and protection. You can also use TM next to the mark. If you register the trademark, you can use (r) next to the mark and it gives a clear date of use together with some warning for potential infringers or new companies looking at names. Either way you have a protection unregistered/registered. If you have an LTD then that also goes a little further to help establish unregistered rights.

As you see with many new TLDs having a registered trademark can sometimes be a benefit to staking a claim, and it can also gain you some respect with clients.

Really depends where you see your business going, a trademark is an asset so can be sold or add value when selling your business.

Although personally I think I wasted a lot of money on the trademark and design patents, it was great experience and I learned a lot through the research.

Good luck

 

[thesmileyone]

Thankyou.

I think I will TM it but not bother with the EU patents then. For the sake of £170 it is nothing really. I take it TM'ing a company can be written off against its tax?

 

[woopwoop]

You can treat the trademark as an expense or an asset. Accountant will be able to help more. But as an asset it would live on your balance sheet and in the long run could appreciate depending on your growth and accountnting principles.

If your a small business it might be best to treat it as an expense, but remember the £ benefit is the tax that you avoid by spending 170 on the mark - so you may save £30 in tax but you still spend an extra £170 on the trademark, so you're still down £140ish (but have a trademark). Sorry if that's too confusing/obvious.

It's just I keep having people try and sell me stuff by saying it's a tax write off but the truth is that overall spending (not necessarily investing in things that bring a return) means that I'm eating into profits with almost negligible write off.



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[namealot]

For domains its often first regged that wins but not always? They don’t stop anyone registering name in com or any other cctld or tld starting another business same name, trading etc, might stop them in the same class etc but don’t bet on it ? Depends on how unique etc even for all sewn up totally unique ticking all the boxes plenty of hassle from countries not signed up to any international agreements or that are and don’t enforce them.?

E’g India Madrid Protocol July 8, 2013 ? bet enforcement will be thin on the ground there? Other treaties Singapore Treaty etc

Understand what they are, do, if you need it, will it actually benefit real world? what your expecting it to be? What some think they are and they really are often polls apart?

Research before wasting your money or not getting the protection you require?m Remember you have to earn it to save it tax etc

 

[thesmileyone]

Thanks

It seems it will protect me in the UK but not overseas. Especially as the company behind the .com is an LLC in the states and quite a large Affiliate network and CPA network (I didnt know this when I registered the LTD company).