copyright & trademarks

[tommy]

I am looking to copyright or trademark my business names but havent got a clue on how and where. I looked at the government site and that gave me a serious headache.

I was just wondering if anybody could give me a bit of advice on:
Costs, Time takes to process, the route I have to take etc, etc.

Thanks in advance

Tom

[AndrewW]

Tom

Copyright--it's automatic in the UK. You don't need to register it although it's a good idea to keep proof of when you designed something.

Trade mark--expensive and slow. www.patent.gov.uk has lots of good info.

Do, though, see our website below. You'll find lots of plain English info on "What's in a name" etc.


And: do contact me for a chat!

Regards

Andrew

[gary]

I arranged the registration of a trademark for a client a couple of years ago, and it was pretty painless. I would certainly recommend using a trademark solicitor for this as if you get it wrong it can work out pretty expensive. Make sure you shop around - fees vary widely, but that doesn't mean that cheapest is necessarily the best option!

Gary

[Ozzy]

Must say I used a Trademark Solicitor for my own applications and it worked out pretty easy. Very painless ifleft to the professionals :)

[AndrewW]

I've got to agree!

Tom: as I say, do contact me for a chat. Happy to help out. (Contact info via the website)

Regards

Andrew

[VeryMark]

You may be interested to know that we have a free virtual guide to Trade Marks, Brand Protection & Related Copyright & Design which is available either as a mini cd-rom, via email, or as a download from the Sunday Times Enterprise Network website via this link: [/url]http://www.enterprisenetwork.co.uk/downloads/Trade%20Marks.exe. The virtual guide is sealed with a ‘Thawte’ Content Signed Certificate (Microsoft Authenticode) allowing safe electronic distribution over the Internet.

[Ozzy]

Well, I was just on that website not 5 minutes ago! I'll have a look at the guide as it would be interesting to read without doubt.

[MikeH]

As stated by someone else copyright subsits from creation, it cannot be registered etc. Trademarks take a minimum of 7 months. For more info on trademarks please have a look at the following link to our site which contains some info on trademarks and a guide to the costs involved

http://www.sfsgo.com/otherservices.asp

Hope it helps,

Mike.

[VeryMark]

Mike is certainly correct in what he says, and our fees can also be viewed on our website at www.crossguard.info.

We are professionally and legally qualified and regulated both by the Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys and as Registered Trade Mark Agents under The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.

[forparents]

Sorry to dig this this thread and jumping in but I'm also looking into this subject at present not to trademark but actually just to check if the name I want to use for a website is ok to use as it is a similar name to other site.

If anyone can help me I would be grateful, I just need some help to ensure that this web name I'm using is ok to go ahead with, please can you kindly send me a PM instead as I don't really want to submit it here publicly.

Thank you so much in advance.