UK Trademark application
This process involves searching the UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) to see if there are any conflicting or similar trademarks already registered. If we feel the trademark will not be disputed this will be applied for and added to the Trademark Journal which gives others the opportunity to dispute the application. If there are no disputes you will be issued with your new trademark lasting 10 years. This process varies depending on what type of trademark you are registering; whether it is a word, an image or a phrase for example.
The cost of registering one UK trademark is approximately £1,500 plus VAT and application fees and takes 4-6 months to successfully obtain registration. You will be able to register more than one trademark at a time if you wish and the costs will be adjusted accordingly.
EU TRADEMARK application
The process of registering an EU trademark is similar to the UK however using the European system you can register a trademark in 28 countries using a single application. This is carried out with the European Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO). The benefits of this are that you only need one application and one application fee. The main weakness of the European system is that if the application fails in one country the entire application will fail even if there are no objections in any of the other 28 countries.
The cost of registering one EU trademark is approximately £3,500 plus VAT and application fees and provides protection in 28 countries. An EU trademark will take approximately 12-18 months to be successfully registered.
WORLDWIDE TRADEMARK application
Under the worldwide system you can co-ordinate trademark registrations in almost 200 countries. This is a very expensive process. The scale and costs of this run into tens of thousands and it can take up to 2 years. If you feel your business will be covering global ground and will benefit from worldwide protection then this could be a useful investment for your company.
If any specific country outside of the European system, usually USA, is of interest we would usually look at instructing a US trademark attorney who can assist with a trademark registration (or a lawyer from the country you are looking to register the trademark in).
Please contact us if you would like to know more about our services.