Protecting your business name and brand
Your trading name and brand are examples of intellectual property. They are not automatically protected, so you will need to register these if you want to stop others from using them.
Identify your intellectual property
You can stop others using your original ideas, creations, designs and your brand identity by protecting your intellectual property. Your intellectual property can include:
- content for your website, social media or publications
- your trading name, logo, taglines, packaging, branding and product names
- physical or digital media like photographs and recordings
- original processes or techniques of creating or delivering something
- designs and design features that have a unique visual appearance
- new ideas, tools, products, materials or mechanisms
If elements of your business are unique and give you a competitive edge, you may be able to protect this intellectual property.
Protect your intellectual property
There are 4 types of intellectual property protection. The type your business needs depends on what you want to protect:
- register a trade mark for brand protection
- assert your copyright to protect creative work
- apply for a patent to protect your inventions
- register a design to protect the appearance of products
Register a trade mark
Trade marks can protect the names, logos, sounds or branding that identify your business.
Registering these as trade marks stops others from using them for the same class, or category, of goods or services that you provide. For example, you can trade mark your chocolate bar named ‘Delicious’ in the food class, but that does not prevent someone else selling a perfume named ‘Delicious’.
You must pay a fee to register a trade mark. The fee starts at £170 and increases, depending on how many classes you register in.
Trade marks registered in the UK only protect you in the UK.
Future-proof your trade marks
If you register a trade mark in one class, someone else can still use it for another class. Think about your future growth or expansion plans before choosing your classes.
If you register a trade mark in one class, someone else can still use it for another class. Think about your future growth or expansion plans before choosing your classes.
Register web domains
Use a web domain checker to search if the website address you want is available.
Make sure the web address is:
- easy to pronounce, remember and spell
- relevant to what your business does
- not easily confused with someone else’s brand, products or services
Choose a domain that ends in .uk if your main customer base is in the UK.
Buy the domain you want to use and consider if you need to buy any additional domains.
Registering multiple web domains to preserve your brand
People searching for your business could end up on similarly named sites. To make sure they find you, you may also want to buy and register:
- other domain extensions for your website – for example, buy the .co.uk, .com and .uk extensions for the domain name
- similar domain names – for example, buy pretendbusiness.co.uk and pretend-business.co.uk
People searching for your business could end up on similarly named sites. To make sure they find you, you may also want to buy and register:
- other domain extensions for your website – for example, buy the .co.uk, .com and .uk extensions for the domain name
- similar domain names – for example, buy pretendbusiness.co.uk and pretend-business.co.uk
Open social media accounts
Sign up for the social media handles you want for your business. Secure these now, even if you’re not ready to begin marketing your business yet.
You do not need to be on every social media platform. Look back at your market research and focus on the platforms where your customers are most likely to post.