Best place to register a brand?

[smithster1]

I am looking online now, seems to be a whirlwind of options, most look like unnecessary middle players.
Where is the best place to register a brand / trade mark?
I can see the .gov site, but I seem to remember there being a place where most people went.

 

[fisicx]

The gov is the only place to register a trademark.

Register a trade mark

Protect your brand by registering it as a trade mark - how to apply, fees, responding to objections to your trade mark, using the ® symbol.

www.gov.uk

 

[smithster1]

OK

The gov is the only place to register a trademark.

OK thanks...
I am doing this as well for Amazon store, I want my own store on there, but they telling me I need to be a registeted brand...
Has anyone had any experience with that? Their whole back end eco system is more complex than learning HTML!

 

[AmazonGeek]

The IPO is the place - https://www.gov.uk/how-to-register-a-trade-mark/apply

But there are pitfalls to avoid. Some obvious ones...

- the trademark cannot solely describe the product or service. So you can have 'Apple' but not if you are selling apples!

- you need to name the classes you want to cover and there are 45 of them. You get one included in your £170 fee and extra ones are £50 per class

- once applied for, you cannot go back and add extra classes on, so make sure you know which ones you need

- you cannot blanked bomb that list of 45. There needs to be a reasonable prospect that you will be protecting something in that class at some point

- other people can have the same trademark providing they are in a different class and there is going to be no confusion between customers. So if Apple only covered the electronics classes you could start up a combine harvester business and register apple as your trademark, as long as Apple didn't complain that it could confuse their customers (so probably best not to try)

- well worth an extra £10 for the 'right start' service. You pay 50% up front, so if it is just one class you would pay (£170 + £30) / 2 = £100. Then an IPO lawyer looks it over and says if they think there will be any problems. If not, you pay the balance and it goes to publication in the trademark journal. 3 months later it is registered, providing there are no objections. If the IPO guy advises you it will fail, you lose your deposit and have to start again. But at least you don't lose the lot and wait 3 months to find out...

 

[smithster1]

The IPO is the place -

But there are pitfalls to avoid. Some obvious ones...

- the trademark cannot solely describe the product or service. So you can have 'Apple' but not if you are selling apples!

- you need to name the classes you want to cover and there are 45 of them. You get one included in your £170 fee and extra ones are £50 per class

- once applied for, you cannot go back and add extra classes on, so make sure you know which ones you need

- you cannot blanked bomb that list of 45. There needs to be a reasonable prospect that you will be protecting something in that class at some point

- other people can have the same trademark providing they are in a different class and there is going to be no confusion between customers. So if Apple only covered the electronics classes you could start up a combine harvester business and register apple as your trademark, as long as Apple didn't complain that it could confuse their customers (so probably best not to try)

- well worth an extra £10 for the 'right start' service. You pay 50% up front, so if it is just one class you would pay (£170 + £30) / 2 = £100. Then an IPO lawyer looks it over and says if they think there will be any problems. If not, you pay the balance and it goes to publication in the trademark journal. 3 months later it is registered, providing there are no objections. If the IPO guy advises you it will fail, you lose your deposit and have to start again. But at least you don't lose the lot and wait 3 months to find out...

Thanks, going to screen shot this and add to a folder to refer back to.

 

[Panoramix IP]

While you absolutely can file your trade mark application yourself using the IPO website, doing so is fraught with risks. If you have a very simple business such as one that simply sells footwear and will never expand into other products then absolutely go for it. Class 25 (maybe 35 too). If you are selling a range of products or will be looking to sell into other countries than you really should use an experienced attorney. For example, following changes in the fee rules in the US, if you file an application based on an earlier U.K. application you could be hit with surcharges. Working with a good attorney would prevent that happening.