To Trade Mark or Not

[handmadecards]

Hi
I have a company registered and would now like to trade mark it
What I'm wondering is can someone else use the same name by adding words to it. For example, my name is Pretty Pink Ltd ( not real) and if I trade mark this it will be for class 16 paper. Can someone else use the name Pretty Pink Cards by adding in the word card as a business name

 

[ldnsystems]

Yeah, anyone can do what they want - you and I can't stop them. However, if you believe someone / some business entered the market doing just that, you could claim against them for exploiting your brand name and reputation. You could also claim that your customers were confused by this new brand / business - that's if they (customers) believed you owned them, had invested in them, manage them or whatever. You could have them removed from the marketplace.

When starting my own business, I thought that this was a good idea, but trade marking is expensive and I thought that it would only be necessary if something like this happened, however, a year and a half on it hasn't I would only trademark if the company was growing surprising well and you started doing something revolutionary

 

[Moneyman]

Take it that nobody will do it if you have the dot co and dot com. there are things you can do about it but it costs and depends where.
get in touch with an intelectual property firm and ask them what can be done and how much. The first assessment should be free but a decent europe protection is £1300 ish to start.

 

[Trademarkroom]

Hello

A trade mark is not compulsory for a business but advisable and not as expensive as you might think, especially if applying for a UK trade mark in one class. If you do it yourself it can cost as little as £170.00 (NIL VAT) for the UK IPO fee. If we did it for you we would charge £150.00+VAT on top of that.

In Europe it does cost more but you get more for your money.

In the exmple you give- pretty pink is the most distinctive part of your trade mark and you would not able to protect 'cards' for a card product. So yes you should be able to prevent others if they added a non distinctive term such as this.

In my view a registered trade mark should be obtained at the start of a business- it lasts for 10 years and gives you some control over whom might use your brand without your consent.

Please feel free to 'pm' me if i can help further.

 

[handmadecards]

Thank you this is what I was looking for

""In the exmple you give- pretty pink is the most distinctive part of your trade mark and you would not able to protect 'cards' for a card product. So yes you should be able to prevent others if they added a non distinctive term such as this.""