Trademark definition: A trademark is a form of intellectual property, most commonly a brand name or logo, that you use to distinguish your product or business.

A trademark registration gives you the exclusive right to use your brand for the products and services you’ve chosen to protect. This means you can stop competitors from using brands that are the same as or confusingly similar to yours.

A registered trademark can become a valuable business asset – you can sell it or license it to others to use in return for payment.

It is much cheaper (and easier) to take action against someone who uses your trademark without your permission if you have a trademark registration. This is because you can sue them for trademark infringement.

A registered trademark shows that you believe your brand is an investment worth protecting. It gives you the right to use the ® symbol and sends a powerful message to the world that you take brand protection seriously.

You can apply for the following types of trademarks via Trademark Planet:

• Brand names

• Slogans

• Logos

• Logos including words

If you want to register non-traditional trademarks like colours, shapes or sounds, we recommend that you talk to a trademark expert. Typically, the trademark office requires the owner to have built up a reputation in those trademarks before they will be approved for registration.

The UK trademark office charges an official application fee for each class* you include in your trademark application.

*A class refers to the product category the goods and services you wish to protect fall into. For example, “clothing” falls in class 25, while “catering” falls in class 43.

Official fee per application (one class): £170

Official additional fee per extra class: £50

In addition, UK trademark attorneys charge legal service fees which typically range between £300-600 per application to:

determine the products and categories your trademark should cover

draft the trademark specification for you

submit the trademark application to the trademark office

Attorneys usually also charge additional fees for reporting on objections, progress updates, trademark office approval and registration.

With Trademark Planet, you can eliminate the attorneys’ tedious processes (and fees!) and use our online application process to complete your trademark application quickly and conveniently, in 4 easy steps.

Our pricing is straightforward, there are no hidden fees.

Our all-inclusive fee for one trademark application in one category is £390.

If you choose to include extra categories in your application, these cost an additional £100 per category.

If you haven’t registered your trademark yet, you can identify your trademark by using the superscript TM symbol that looks like this ™.

However, if you have a registered trademark, you can identify it by using the superscript R symbol inside a circle: ®.

In the UK, a trademark application must go through an examination process. Once the trademark office has confirmed that you have a trademark registration, only then can you use the registered trademark symbol: ®.

After Trademark Planet has submitted your UK trademark application, we’ll send you email updates at each stage of the process:

When the trademark office approves your application, we’ll let you know via email.

If your application faces a trademark objection to the wording for the products or services you’ve chosen, we’ll fix it for no charge and let you know by email.

If your application receives other objections, we’ll inform you and let you know your options.

Once your trademark is registered, we’ll send you the good news. We’ll email you your trademark registration certificate and include details of how to renew your trademark in due course.

Completing your UK trademark application via Trademark Planet should only take a matter of minutes. We’ll then submit your application to the UK trademark office.

Your trademark application will be examined by the UK trademark office within a month and they’ll let us know if it’s approved or if there are any objections. Trademark Planet will report this to you by email.

Once your trademark application is approved, the application is advertised for a period of two months to allow others to object to registration – this is called a trademark opposition. If there is no opposition to your trademark during that time, then your application should be registered within another couple of weeks.

Trademark Planet is the fastest, easiest way to protect your brand yourself.

Trademark Planet was built by trademark lawyers who have a wealth of experience in intellectual property law, including trademarks, patents, branding and copyright.

With decades of local and international experience in the IP world, we built Trademark Planet to eliminate the many common stumbling blocks, and make the process to register a trademark as straightforward as possible.

No, unfortunately once your trademark application is submitted the fees are non-refundable. We recommend preparing thoroughly before submitting your application.

Our online trademark application process is designed to be used without any assistance from us – try it and you’ll very quickly see how easy we’ve made it.

If you have any questions, you can call us at 01226 610952 or get in touch via our contact form.

Trademark infringement is when someone uses your trademark (or a confusingly similar one) without your permission for products or services similar to yours.

If you have a trademark registration, you can take legal action against any infringer to prevent them from continuing to use your trademark.

This is when someone opposes your application to register a trademark.

After your trademark application has been approved by the trademark office, it is advertised for two months before it is registered.

During this time, known as the opposition period, other entities can object to registration of your trademark by filing a formal opposition with the trademark office.

Trademark registrations can exist forever provided that they are continuously renewed.

You must renew your trademark registration by paying a trademark renewal fee to the UK trademark office every ten years. In the UK, trademarks can be renewed six months before the renewal date and up to six months afterwards.

If you want to renew your UK trademark, feel free to get in touch with us.

Trademark Planet is an online assisted trademark application service, not a law firm or trademark attorney firm. We do not provide legal services or advice.

If you need specific legal advice on trademarks such as an opinion on registrability or infringement risk, we suggest getting in touch with a trademark expert before you apply.