A trademark is a word, phrase, symbol, logo or design, or a combination of these, used to identify and distinguish the goods or services of one person or organisation from those of others, or more importantly your competitors. Your trademark can be used as your marketing tool as this how others will recognise your products or services, it is your identity.

The more you focus on the use of your trademark and the longer you use it to identify your goods and services, the stronger and more valuable your brand becomes.

Trade marks are important assets to your business and by protecting your brand within your territory you prevent someone from damaging your business by using a similar mark. In simple terms, if you do not http://www.downing-ip.com/trade_marks.php  then someone else can and you are then putting your business at risk and you might be legally prevented from expanding your business.

Once you have registered your trademark you will find it easier to enforce against other businesses who have acquired a conflicting interest. Trademarks are also property rights that can be sold, bought and licenced to make a profit. If another business uses your trademark you have the right to sue them for trademark infringement for an account of turnover or profit. It is also worth noting that a registered trade mark must be renewed every 10 years to keep it in force.

A great example of why you should register your company trademark as soon as you open for business has been shown recently in the press. Social Network PInterest had failed to show that the public were aware enough of the PInterest name before Premium Interest (London-based social news aggregation start-up) filed for the trademark at the end of January 2012.

This trademark ruling in Europe could stop PInterest from expanding into the continent, as the EU's office rules that the company doesn't own the rights to the name "PInterest". Whilst there are plenty of things that Pinterest could have done to present their case better and will no doubt have done so on their appeal, if they had just filed their own application earlier then there would have been nothing to argue about.

At Downing Intellectual Property we have seen an incredible amount of companies in the same situation. “It really is a very simple process to register a trade mark in the UK and/or the EU, and the cost is not that great in the context of setting up a new business or a new product line. As the Pinterest case shows, though, if you leave it until you have a problem then it gets a lot harder.“ says Michael Downing, Intellectual Property expert.

If your business needs help or advice with any aspects of trade mark registration and protection we would be happy to hear from you. You can contact a member of the Downing IP team on 01494 422626 or email info@downing-ip.com

For more information on our Intellectual Property services please visit our website www.downing-ip.com