Protecting your brand name before you spend money marketing it
Company registration and trade mark registration do different things. Confusing them is an expensive mistake.
Read articlePractice area
Intellectual Property
For a growing number of businesses, the most valuable thing they own is not on the balance sheet.
Overview
What this work involves
A brand name, a piece of software, a body of content, a design. These are frequently the assets that make a business worth more than its equipment, and the ones most often left unprotected until someone else uses them.
We help clients identify what they own, secure the protections available, and make sure their contracts do not quietly give ownership away. That last point matters more than people expect: a great deal of IP is lost through ordinary agreements with contractors, not through infringement.
What we help clients with
The work, set out plainly.
Trade mark searches and registration
Checking whether a name is available and pursuing registration through the appropriate registry.
Copyright and content
Ownership of written, visual, audio and software works, and registration where relevant.
Software and technology
Ownership of code, licensing, open source considerations and developer agreements.
Licensing and assignment
Documenting how your IP may be used by others, on what terms and for how long.
IP clauses in contracts
Making sure work you pay for belongs to you, and that you are not assigning your own rights away.
Enforcement
Responding to infringement, and to allegations of infringement.
Typical matters
Examples of instructions in this area.
These illustrate the kind of work this practice area covers. They are not descriptions of specific client matters.
- Searching and applying to register a trade mark for a new brand
- Advising on ownership of software written by a contractor
- Preparing a licence for a third party to use a brand
- Responding to a demand alleging infringement
- Advising a founder on IP to be assigned into a new company
Frequently asked questions
Questions we are asked most often.
Not necessarily. Registering a company name and registering a trade mark are different things. A company registration lets you operate under that name. A trade mark registration is what you rely on to stop others using a confusingly similar mark for similar goods or services.
The contract decides, and the default is often not what the paying client assumes. If ownership of designs, content or code matters to you, the assignment needs to be written in before the work starts.
Registration involves examination and publication stages and timelines vary, so we avoid quoting a fixed period. We explain the stages, give an indicative range, and tell you where the process commonly slows down.
Searching before launch is almost always worth it. Discovering a conflict after you have printed packaging and built an audience is an expensive way to learn. Whether to file immediately depends on budget and how central the name is.
These answers are general.
They describe how things usually work, not how they will work in your situation. Requirements
and timelines change. Please take advice before acting.
Related insights
Further reading
Seven clauses worth reading twice in any commercial contract
You will not read every word of every agreement. If you only have twenty minutes, these are the clauses where the money sits.
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