Trademark owners beware
October 10th, 2007 by GilesIf you own a trademark, beware! Since the 1st October, the rules have changed and the UK’s Intellectual Property Office (IPO) will no longer automatically refuse a new trademark application simply because a similar or identical mark is already registered.
Now, when their search identifies the existence of a registered trademark, the IPO will inform the applicant for the new mark, who then has to decide whether to go ahead with the application.
If the applicant does go ahead, then the owner of the existing registered mark will be notified. They then have three months in which to make a block on the application.
For more information take a look at the IPO website.
November 6th, 200710:21 pm at
I actually really like this, hopefully it will streamline the process at the IPO. A crucial, but useful, change is that EU holders have to “opt-in” to have be notified. If they do not opt-in they will have to monitor new trademarks themselves. A few applications I have made this year would have benefited this process as I don’t honestly believe that the trademark holder would have had the issues that the IPO had. It will bed interesting to see how many trademark battles will crop up in coming months/years as a result of this change.