Trademark Your Brand

If you’ve ever worked in an office with an active fridge, you’ve likely seen a note with the phrase on the image above. The grown up version of declaring ownership of a brand name and identity is to protect them with a trademark. Please be clear that licking your brand name or logo won’t mean that anyone else can’t use it.

I have only just applied to protect the brand name Mummy’s Muse along with our two logos. I should have done this a lot earlier. In the UK, you trademark brands with the Intellectual Property Office. It’s a relatively simple process and UK trademark registration lasts 10 years. I only recently learned it lasts for 10 years; I falsely thought I would have to pay to renew the protection each year which is why I held off. There are a number of fees I pay on an annual basis and I didn’t want to add another one as I’m not trading…yet 😉

How does trademarking work?

When protecting your brand, you need to select the categor(ies) you want it to be protected within. For example if someone decides they want to use the brand name Mummy’s Muse to start a law firm, the protection I’ve applied for won’t be able to contest the use of the name. However if you wanted to start a womenswear label called Mummy’s Muse, my trademark protection would cover that and I could contest your request to use it. You can tradmeark a brand name across multiple categories – you just pay an additional fee for additional categoires.

Waiting this long to protect the brand was a highly risky move. If someone applies to trademark Mummy’s Muse in the same cateogries I would like it trademarked against, I basically need to start again with a new brand.

I’m currently waiting to find out whether my application to trademark Mummy’s Muse has been successful. It can take up to four months to get a response from the IPO. My advice to anyone starting a business is once you have your brand name and logo, trademark them as it’s not too expensive and the protection lasts for 10 years in the UK. Also think ahead and ensure you include all the categories and descriptions you may want protection against in the future. Think big. A lot is possible in 10 years, and you can’t add to the categories or descriptions once you’ve submitted your application.