You might think that approval of your business name by Companies House is an indicator that it is not already a registered trademark, but you would be wrong. They only check to see whether business names have already been taken by existing limited companies. It is your responsibility to check whether your business name idea is a registered trademark before you attempt to register it. Trademarks have particular relevance for UK companies because they supersede the standard company name rules.
You can do this by using the free trademark search function provided by the Intellectual Property Office (IPO).
There are four types of intellectual property, each one a way of identifying who owns an idea and protecting its use. Trademarks are one type of intellectual property. If an idea is a registered trademark then it is protected against anyone trying to claim and use it as their own. Anyone who wants to make money from that idea has to ask permission from the person who registered the trademark and may have to pay. Only those ideas that can be shown to be unique and original can be covered by intellectual property.
Trademarks can be applied to most companies and are typically used to protect brands. They cover words and logos, which mean they can be used to protect your company name, product name and logo designs, or both. This is to prevent people from copying your company or products in order to try and steal your customers.
For details on how to apply to register your company name as a trademark click here.
The rules around what can and cannot be trademarked are complicated by the presence of trademark classes. The IPO categorises trademarks into 45 separate classes. This means that it is possible to have a company or product name registered in one class and an identical company or product name registered by someone else in a separate class. Using ‘Polo’ as an example, it is a name as synonymous with a brand of mints produced by Nestle as it is for a model of car manufactured by Volkswagen. The two companies have been allowed to trademark the same brand name because they have been placed in different categories and are unlikely to confuse anyone.