# What Is a Trademark? Protecting Your Brand

> A plain-English guide to trademarks: what they protect, how registering with the UK Intellectual Property Office works, the symbols, and how a trademark fits into protecting your brand.

*Section: Business — By Liam Chen (World Affairs Reporter) — Published March 18, 2025 — 5 min read*

Canonical URL: https://dailyjunction.co.uk/business/what-is-a-trademark
Tags: trademark, intellectual property, branding, IPO, small business

## Key takeaways

- A trademark protects the signs that identify your brand — typically a name, logo or slogan.
- Registration with the UK Intellectual Property Office gives you stronger, clearer legal rights.
- Trademarks are registered against specific classes of goods and services, not everything.
- Use the ® symbol only for registered marks; ™ can be used to assert an unregistered claim.
- A registered trademark can last indefinitely if you renew it and keep using it.

You can spend years building a brand — a name customers trust, a logo they recognise, a reputation they value — and lose a chunk of it overnight if someone else starts trading under something confusingly similar. A **trademark** is the legal tool that stops that from happening. For any business with a name worth protecting, understanding trademarks is not a luxury; it is part of looking after an asset you have worked hard to create.

*This is general information, not legal advice. Intellectual property rules and fees change, so confirm the current position on GOV.UK or with a qualified attorney before acting.*

## What a trademark is

A trademark protects the **signs that identify your brand** and distinguish your goods or services from everyone else's. In practice that usually means your **brand name, logo or slogan**, though trademarks can also cover shapes, sounds, colours and other distinctive markers. The essential idea is *distinctiveness*: a trademark is something that lets customers know a product or service comes from **you**.

That is also why purely descriptive terms are hard to protect. You cannot trademark "Fresh Bread" for a bakery, because every baker needs those words. But an invented or distinctive name applied to bread can be protected, because it points to a single source rather than describing the product itself.

## Why trademarks matter for your brand

A brand is one of a business's most valuable assets, and a trademark is what turns reputation into a defensible legal right. Registering gives you:

- **The exclusive right** to use the mark for the goods and services you register it for.
- **A clear basis to stop others** using an identical or confusingly similar mark.
- **An asset you can sell, license or franchise**, because it is now property.
- **Deterrence** — a registered mark on the public register warns others off before disputes start.

This sits alongside the other ways businesses guard what they create. Trademarks are one part of a wider toolkit; our guide on [how to protect a business idea](/business/how-to-protect-a-business-idea) covers how trademarks fit with confidentiality, copyright and other protections, because a brand name is rarely the only thing worth defending.

## Registered versus unregistered

You get *some* protection automatically just by trading under a name, through a common-law action called **passing off**. But relying on it is a weak position: you have to prove you had built up reputation in the name, that the other party misrepresented their goods as yours, and that you suffered damage. That is slow, expensive and uncertain.

**Registration** is far stronger. A registered trademark is a clear, provable, public right — you can point to the register rather than reconstruct a reputation in court. For most serious businesses, registering the core brand is well worth the cost and effort precisely because it makes enforcement straightforward instead of fraught.

## How registration works in the UK

In the UK, trademarks are registered through the **Intellectual Property Office (IPO)**. The process, in outline:

1. **Search first.** Check the IPO's trademark database to make sure your mark is not identical or too similar to one already registered for related goods or services. This avoids wasted fees and future conflict.
2. **Choose your classes.** Trademarks are registered against specific **classes** of goods and services (there are 45 in the international system). You register only in the classes that match what you sell — and you pay per class.
3. **Apply.** Submit your application to the IPO with the mark, the classes and the fee.
4. **Examination and publication.** The IPO checks your application and, if it passes, publishes it so existing owners can oppose it within a set window.
5. **Registration.** If there is no successful opposition, your mark is registered.

> Getting the classes right matters more than people expect. Protection only covers the classes you register, so think about where your business is heading, not just where it is today.

## The symbols: ™ and ®

The two symbols are not interchangeable, and the difference is legal, not stylistic:

| Symbol | Meaning | Who can use it |
|--------|---------|----------------|
| ™ | Claims a trademark | Anyone asserting a mark, registered or not |
| ® | Registered trademark | Only owners of a registered mark |

Using the **®** symbol on a mark that is *not* registered is an offence, so never apply it until your registration is confirmed. The **™** symbol is a softer claim you can use to put others on notice that you regard a name or logo as yours, even before registration.

## Keeping a trademark alive

A registered UK trademark lasts **ten years** and can be renewed indefinitely in further ten-year periods — which is why some of the world's oldest brands still hold live marks. But protection is not entirely passive. You must:

- **Keep using the mark.** Trademarks that go unused for a sustained period can be challenged and struck off.
- **Renew on time.** Miss the renewal and you can lose the registration.
- **Police it.** Rights are only as strong as your willingness to enforce them, so watch for infringers and act on serious ones.

Securing your brand identity is one of the foundational steps when [starting a business in the UK](/business/how-to-start-a-business-uk), alongside choosing a structure and getting your finances in order. Doing the trademark search early can also save you from building a brand around a name you cannot actually own.

## A note on scope

Trademark rights are **territorial**. A UK registration protects you in the UK; if you trade or plan to trade abroad, you may need protection in other countries, which can be approached through international systems. Likewise, registering a company name at Companies House or buying a domain does **not** give you trademark rights — they are separate things, and a registered company name can still infringe someone else's mark.

## The bottom line

A trademark turns the brand you have built into a legal asset you can defend, license and pass on. It protects the signs that say "this comes from us" — usually your name, logo or slogan — and registration with the IPO gives you far stronger, clearer rights than relying on passing off. Search before you apply, register in the classes that matter, use the ® symbol only once you are registered, and keep the mark in use and renewed. For any business with a name worth protecting, it is one of the soundest investments you can make.

## Frequently asked questions

### Do I have to register a trademark?

No, but it is strongly advisable. Unregistered names can have limited protection under 'passing off', which is harder and costlier to enforce. A registered trademark gives you a clear, provable right to your brand in the classes you register.

### What can I trademark?

Signs that distinguish your goods or services — commonly a brand name, logo or slogan, and sometimes shapes, sounds or colours. It must be distinctive and not merely descriptive, offensive or too similar to an existing mark.

### What is the difference between ™ and ®?

The ™ symbol can be used to claim a trademark whether or not it is registered. The ® symbol may only be used for marks that are actually registered, and using it falsely is an offence.

### How long does a UK trademark last?

A registered UK trademark lasts ten years and can be renewed indefinitely in further ten-year periods. You must keep using it, as unused marks can be challenged and removed.

## Sources

- [GOV.UK: Apply to register a trade mark](https://www.gov.uk/how-to-register-a-trade-mark)
- [Intellectual Property Office](https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/intellectual-property-office)
- [GOV.UK: Intellectual property and your work](https://www.gov.uk/intellectual-property-an-overview)

---
Daily Junction — https://dailyjunction.co.uk/business/what-is-a-trademark