Business Legal Services
Trade Marks
Service overview: Trade marks
Distinguish your brand from competitors and create value in your business through your trade mark. Ensuring your trade marks are protected prevents others from unfairly capitalising on your brand and reputation. Carefully managing and strategically exploiting trade marks with the support of a trade mark solicitor, as well as robustly defending them when necessary, will help build your brand and protect your reputation and valuable IP assets.
Experts in trade mark law
Our team can assist you across all areas of intellectual property law, including:
What we do: Trade mark solicitors
It’s likely that your business will deal with trade marks at some point, whether they are your own trade marks or those of third parties. Protecting your trade mark is an important step in protecting your brand’s name and/or logo, and the goodwill and reputation associated with that branding.
Our expert trade mark solicitors will help you protect the reputation of your business and distinguish your brand from your competitors. They will also help you identify which intellectual property services and protections would best suit your needs, and the best strategies to exploit your intellectual property. Start-ups, SMEs, creatives, entrepreneurs, and growing organisations can all benefit from protecting their trade marks.
Our team of intellectual property solicitors can:
Identify what may qualify for trade mark protection
A trade mark can include a name, word, logo, sound, colour or any combination of those, so long as they are distinctive.
Help you consider what to register in the context of your wider intellectual property and business strategy.
Explain and advise on your legal rights with trade marks.
Advise on whether your trade mark should be registered and, if so, how to register it.
Support you with the application process both in the UK and internationally and provide advice in relation to oppositions.
Support you with resolving disputes efficiently and effectively to protect your brand
Enforcing your rights and defending your trade mark from infringement by others, as well as defending you from infringement claims, both in the UK and abroad. We use alternative dispute resolution methods where possible to save time and minimise costs.
Set up a trade mark watch
We’ll manage and protect your trade marks using industry leading technology ensuring competition does not infringe your trade mark and you do not infringe on other trade marks.
Provide advice on trade mark clauses in commercial agreements, employment contracts and corporate documents.
Support you with day-to-day trade mark portfolio management, such as renewals.
Draft non-disclosure agreements to protect your intellectual property if you have to disclose it to third parties.
Draft trade mark licences
Advise you on the sale or transfer of a trade mark (also known as an assignment).
Dealing with ‘passing off’ actions.
Advise you on your IP rights in the context of franchising.
Create a trade mark strategy to help achieve business goals.
Offer training so you have the tools to exploit your trade mark.
Who we help
If someone has infringed your trade mark
If someone uses your trade mark without permission, or if you think someone is using or trying to use a trade mark similar to yours, this may be an intellectual property infringement. It’s strongly advised that your first action is to seek legal advice from a trade mark solicitor and take corrective action against the person committing the infringement.
If the matter is not resolved, our trade mark solicitor can act on your behalf and begin legal proceedings. This can be costly, and our trade mark solicitors will always seek alternative dispute resolution, to reduce the amount of cost and time of the proceedings.
If you have been accused of trade mark infringement
You may accidentally infringe on the trade mark of another business. This can happen if you’ve developed your business and branding and unknowingly started using the branding for services/goods which a third party has a registered trade mark for.
If you’ve been accused of trade mark infringement, it’s important to get legal advice from a trade mark solicitor immediately. Acting quickly can ensure the matter is resolved in a timely matter, and that you do not make any actions which can make the situation worse. A trade mark solicitor will aim to resolve the disputes as efficiently as possible, with as little disruption to your business activity as possible.
Trade mark management support
Whether you’re registering, safeguarding, defending, or exploiting your branding, we’re on hand to support you from your ‘big idea’ and beyond. We have industry leading trade mark solicitors, many with experience of working in-house in businesses, on hand to offer you a truly tailored service.
Our team are more than just trade mark solicitors, they’re an extension of your business who can help you dominate the market and differentiate your brand.
By offering a holistic approach, our trade mark solicitors can offer comprehensive, ongoing support with the following:
Trade mark assessments
We will review and assess your current intellectual property, and your trade marks if you have any registered. We will then review your business goals and offer pragmatic advice on how you could develop your intellectual property strategy for commercial success. We will also highlight any risk areas and suggest ways you can protect your trade mark and your brand.
Trade mark registration
If you haven’t registered your trade mark, our trade mark solicitors can deal with all the paper work and give your business the best chance of having the trade mark application accepted. This could save you the cost of making subsequent re-applications. If your application is unsuccessful, or we envision your application being unsuccessful, we will help you create a trade mark strategy to ensure success.
Trade mark strategy
Using findings from our initial audit, our trade mark solicitors will help draft a comprehensive intellectual property strategy, including ways you can safeguard your trade mark and how you can use your strategy to achieve your overall business goals. We will also help you set detailed and specific actions and objectives, creating a clear ‘action plan’ on how to implement your strategy within your business.
A trade mark strategy can help with the following goals:
- Overall business growth
- Achieve a successful trade mark registration
- Expansion in the UK or overseas
- Achieve success with investment opportunities
- Add value to the sale of a business
Trade mark portfolio management
A significant portion of your trade mark strategy will be allocated to the protection of your intellectual property and trade marks. A trade mark solicitor managing your trade mark portfolio will:
- Remove your business as first point of contact for potential trade mark infringement allegations
- Allow all infringement allegations against your business to be researched and responded to in a timely manner
- Manage all trade mark disputes
- Have your portfolio constantly reviewed for potential infringement breaches, against and by your business
- Monitor third party trade mark applications to identify trade mark applications that are similar to your brand
- Have a legal professional deal with all paperwork and documents relating to your trade mark and intellectual property
Training & support
Having a trade mark solicitor manage your trade mark portfolio, and help create your trade mark strategy, will provide your business with tailored legal support. This means a trade mark solicitor will embed themselves into your business and offer pragmatic and invaluable advice and support in order to achieve your business goals. Examples of how we have supported firms are:
- Training marketing teams on how to correctly communicate their businesses brands online
- Training licensees how to correctly communicate brand identity
- Drafting documents to encourage affiliate marketing, so businesses remain in control over how their brand is communicated
- Offering advice on marketing and branding to ensure trade mark protection e.g. advice on website design, marketing assets etc.
What are the benefits of protecting your trade marks and actively managing your trade mark portfolio?
Protect your brand
Understanding what intellectual property you have in your business and the best way to protect this is a crucial part of your broader business strategy – you can only take the rights steps to safeguard value in your business when you know what you need to protect!
Reduce your administrative burden
Applying for a trade mark includes pitfalls for the unwary that are tricky to rectify and could leave you without the protection you need. Ensuring you get the application right first time will guard against this. A trade mark solicitor can also help with managing your portfolio day-to-day, for example by handling the renewal process on your behalf to ensure you don’t miss an important renewal deadline
Create new revenue streams
By carefully licensing-out your trade mark to other organisations, you will generate valuable additional revenue. You may also benefit from the reputation of third-party brands by licensing-in the use of their trade marks
Ensure your business is attractive to potential investors and buyers
If you have an investment opportunity or exit strategy in mind, you need to ensure that your trade marks (and other IP) are in order – a serious investor or prospective buyer will want to see that you have taken steps to protect your brand
Defend your brand and save time and money with efficient dispute resolution
Defending your brand robustly, and efficiently and effectively dealing with potential issues, will help to ensure that further damage to your brand is limited and that costs are minimised
Why choose our trade mark solicitors?
Harper James offers you industry leading trade mark solicitors who take the time to truly understand your business and identify the best way to protect and exploit your intellectual property.
Our IP solicitors have a wealth of experience in successful IP strategy, IP exploitation and IP dispute resolution. We are experienced in identifying, protecting, exploiting and policing clients’ rights under extensive IP portfolios.
We’re a modern law firm with a difference. Our innovative remote operating model means that you can access expert City-grade legal advice from partner-level solicitors at a fraction of the cost of traditional law firms.
All of our solicitors have been recruited from top 100 UK law firms or from large international businesses and have advised clients both as external advisors and as in-house IP/brand management counsel. Find out more about our trade mark solicitors here:
Pricing and service plans
Legal support designed
to fit your business needs
Our three transparent service plans are designed to give you the widest possible access to high-quality legal advice, whatever the size and nature of your business:
Engage
Flexible access to senior solicitors at highly competitive rates
An alternative to our subscription plans, offering access to full service legal expertise on a project-by-project basis.
Enable
Purpose built legal support for start-ups and smaller businesses
Monthly subscription plan for £215 per month, with £145 monthly credit and access to all legal services at 50% discount on our Standard Rates.
Extend
Comprehensive legal partnership for established businesses
Fully account managed and scalable annual subscription plan with support from a curated team of partners and senior solicitors, with up to 34% discount on our Standard Rates.
Testimonials
What our clients say
Amanda and Gemma were extremely accommodating at the lack of time we could dedicate to supporting the trademark applications and utilised the data we supplied to complete the applications in a speedy timeframe which was very much appreciated.
Jenny James
COO,
Findr Global
Harper James removes the stress for us. I know that we can get advice quickly, without some sort of golden clock being turned on when you pick up the phone. This means we can focus on running the business.
Tom Davenport
Co-Founder,
TalentPool
The extend service we get from Harper James allows us to combine their expertise with that of our own in-house counsel. It means we can get quick and trustworthy legal advice from specialists in every legal area, as and when we need it. There are no hidden extras and the service we have received has always demonstrated an awareness of our fast-moving commercial requirements.
Amelia Guilfoyle
Head of legal,
Zoopla
Knowing you have that level of legal support enables any new business to be able to move forward with more confidence. With Harper James we have that - and more.
Julian Cook
CEO and Co-Founder,
Howamigoing
First class service - initial advice very good and then delivery on said advice. Wasn't a complicated request but can't fault the service and Lindsay would always be my go to contact for any legal work in the UK
Bruce Haxton
Founder,
The Tuk Tuk Club
Harper James Solicitors provides excellent value for money and helps to cover gaps in specialist areas of legal practice. Using an outside legal provider enables us, as a business, to better manage our internal resources, the volume of work we have and to deal with our level of overall risk. I would undoubtedly recommend them to others.
Robert Cowling
General Counsel,
FleetCor
I was referred to Harper James and told that they were the law firm for entrepreneurs. As a start-up, the Enable Plan works very well for us. It allows us to quickly access the legal services we need without spending a fortune.
Judith McMinn
CEO,
Rezon
One of the key factors as to why we went with the enable plan was how inexpensive and flexible the service is, the idea that you can pay monthly and get an hour of free advice gives us the reassurance that we’ll always have legal support on hand as the business continues to grow. The breadth of knowledge Emily has and the transparency of knowing exactly how much it’s going to cost is invaluable. It makes us feel as if we’re in control of how much we’re spending.
Sam Stockman
COO,
Guide Education
The subscription based model of the Enable Plan almost pays for itself and is great value for money, especially compared to the hourly rates of other law firms. Spreading the cost of legal support helps with cash flow and there is no trepidation or fear around costs when contacting Harper James for legal support
Steve Carroll
Founder,
Porterdale Ltd - Clearview
The solicitors I worked with were very knowledgeable about trade marks and they had prepared for our call, they explained our options to me in a very easy to understand way, they answered all my questions swiftly and they were clear and open about the costs.
Alexandra Macleod
Executive Assistant,
Evotra
Dealing with Nicola in regards to my IP case has been a joy. She is very friendly, responsive and most importantly an expert in her field. Couldn't recommend her enough!
Balwinder Singh
Director,
Anmol Sweet Centre
Ben is fantastic, he's doing a lot of the proactive thinking for me. Ben conducted a review of our trade mark portfolio and he gave me his advice as to where he thinks we need to bolster our trade mark protection. I told him about our expansion plans in Asia, so we focused our time there as opposed to looking at territories where we have very small footprints such as in South America, for example.
Jojo Regan
Co-founder,
Manors Golf
I like that I can communicate with Harper James on my own terms. We have access to all the legal services we need under one subscription plan, so there’s no need for us to look elsewhere. It’s great having a one-stop solution that’s both efficient and cost-effective.
Jojo Regan
Co-founder,
Manors Golf
Amanda and Gemma were extremely accommodating at the lack of time we could dedicate to supporting the trademark applications and utilised the data we supplied to complete the applications in a speedy timeframe which was very much appreciated.
Jenny James
COO,
Findr Global
Harper James removes the stress for us. I know that we can get advice quickly, without some sort of golden clock being turned on when you pick up the phone. This means we can focus on running the business.
Tom Davenport
Co-Founder,
TalentPool
The extend service we get from Harper James allows us to combine their expertise with that of our own in-house counsel. It means we can get quick and trustworthy legal advice from specialists in every legal area, as and when we need it. There are no hidden extras and the service we have received has always demonstrated an awareness of our fast-moving commercial requirements.
Amelia Guilfoyle
Head of legal,
Zoopla
Knowing you have that level of legal support enables any new business to be able to move forward with more confidence. With Harper James we have that - and more.
Julian Cook
CEO and Co-Founder,
Howamigoing
First class service - initial advice very good and then delivery on said advice. Wasn't a complicated request but can't fault the service and Lindsay would always be my go to contact for any legal work in the UK
Bruce Haxton
Founder,
The Tuk Tuk Club
Harper James Solicitors provides excellent value for money and helps to cover gaps in specialist areas of legal practice. Using an outside legal provider enables us, as a business, to better manage our internal resources, the volume of work we have and to deal with our level of overall risk. I would undoubtedly recommend them to others.
Robert Cowling
General Counsel,
FleetCor
I was referred to Harper James and told that they were the law firm for entrepreneurs. As a start-up, the Enable Plan works very well for us. It allows us to quickly access the legal services we need without spending a fortune.
Judith McMinn
CEO,
Rezon
One of the key factors as to why we went with the enable plan was how inexpensive and flexible the service is, the idea that you can pay monthly and get an hour of free advice gives us the reassurance that we’ll always have legal support on hand as the business continues to grow. The breadth of knowledge Emily has and the transparency of knowing exactly how much it’s going to cost is invaluable. It makes us feel as if we’re in control of how much we’re spending.
Sam Stockman
COO,
Guide Education
The subscription based model of the Enable Plan almost pays for itself and is great value for money, especially compared to the hourly rates of other law firms. Spreading the cost of legal support helps with cash flow and there is no trepidation or fear around costs when contacting Harper James for legal support
Steve Carroll
Founder,
Porterdale Ltd - Clearview
The solicitors I worked with were very knowledgeable about trade marks and they had prepared for our call, they explained our options to me in a very easy to understand way, they answered all my questions swiftly and they were clear and open about the costs.
Alexandra Macleod
Executive Assistant,
Evotra
Dealing with Nicola in regards to my IP case has been a joy. She is very friendly, responsive and most importantly an expert in her field. Couldn't recommend her enough!
Balwinder Singh
Director,
Anmol Sweet Centre
Ben is fantastic, he's doing a lot of the proactive thinking for me. Ben conducted a review of our trade mark portfolio and he gave me his advice as to where he thinks we need to bolster our trade mark protection. I told him about our expansion plans in Asia, so we focused our time there as opposed to looking at territories where we have very small footprints such as in South America, for example.
Jojo Regan
Co-founder,
Manors Golf
I like that I can communicate with Harper James on my own terms. We have access to all the legal services we need under one subscription plan, so there’s no need for us to look elsewhere. It’s great having a one-stop solution that’s both efficient and cost-effective.
Jojo Regan
Co-founder,
Manors Golf
