Our bid to cancel the EU trade mark registration for 'KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON' rumbles on. The trade mark registration gives the owner, Mr Mark Coop, trade mark rights in all EU countries over posters, clothing, household items and other merchandise. Mr Coop’s team have just requested a two month extension for submitting evidence, which will push back the timings and ultimately the resolution. “It’s been over a year since we started this action, and requesting a further two months is surprising,” said Mark Kingsley-Williams, Director at Trade Mark Direct.  “Given the strength of the case for cancellation some might see it simply as a tactic to delay the inevitable”. Mr Coop’s team have already had half a year to put together their case. "It's hard to imagine they'll unearth any favourable legal arguments or evidence now that they could not before," said Mark Kingsley-Williams. “We think it would have been better for Mr Coop and his reputation to have filed on ...

  Trade Mark Direct, the UK’s leading online trade mark company, won the UK Innovation and Entrepreneurship Award at the UK IT Industry Awards 2012 on 14 November 2012. Known as the Oscars of the IT world, the Awards are run by Computing magazine in association with BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT.   Computing Magazine describes the Awards as “the UK's most rigorously judged IT awards process”.  This year also saw a record breaking number of entries. Beating 12 finalists to the Award, Trade Mark Direct, based in Chiswick, West London, won due to its innovative concept, its measurable success and its high customer satisfaction rates. The founding idea behind Trade Mark Direct was to reduce the cost and uncertainty of trade mark registration by operating online using state of the art language search technology to deliver high quality advice from UK trade mark experts. “We’re proud to say that we’ve transformed the trade mark registration process and dragged it kick...

  Several readers of the Daily Telegraph (17 September 2012) thought it must be April Fool’s Day when they read about the trade mark on the words,   MAN OF THE MATCH . “I know I dropped off during Downton Abbey but it seems I have slept right through to April 1st!” said one.      However this isn’t a practical joke.  The phrase has actually been trademarked since 2002 but now the owner is selling and the trade mark, according to the paper, is expected to reach six figures. What’s important with a trade mark is the goods and services for which the trade mark has been registered (the company has both EU and UK trade marks).  Looking at the Intellectual Property Office site, it’s possible to see that this trade mark is covered under the following classes, 09, 16, 18, 25, 38 and 41: Class 09: CDs, mouse mats, mobile phone accessories. Class 16: Magazines. Class 18: Rucksacks. Class 25: Clothing, hats. Class 28: Games. Class 38: Broadcast of television...

 According to the Daily Telegraph this week disputes over domain names have hit a record high.  Domain squatters will usually use an existing company’s trade mark in a domain name to divert traffic to the new fake site or to make the company buy back their rightful name. The Telegraph noted that this year alone, luxury fashion brand Gucci has been forced to report six cases to win control of more than 100 domains, while Austrian luxury brand Swarovski has brought, and won, 32 cases since 2010. Recent cases have also included London Mayor, Boris Johnson, reclaiming his campaign website after a squatter had taken it over. Disputes are adjudicated on by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO). At Trade Mark Direct, we're contacted every day by companies who are losing out online as they don't have the rights that come with a registered trade mark, which can cost as little as £470.  Ensure your business is protected both on and offline. Please contact Mark or Kate...

  The number of applications submitted for trade mark registration reached over 10 million at the end of June 2012, ranking the first in the world, said ChinaDaily.com this week. China, the ‘workshop of the world’, is the choice for many UK companies when it comes to manufacturing goods. It is the world’s top manufacturing country, having taken the crown from the US last year, and now accounts for almost a fifth of global manufacturing output. However, while many UK companies are taking advantage of China’s cost-saving benefits many are unaware that even if they do not wish to sell their goods in China, they should register their trade mark there or risk someone else doing it first. Registering a trade mark in a country outside the EU is a not an overly complex or costly process (for China the majority filed by Trade Mark Direct are from £400 - £800) and once your application has been made it has priority over any subsequent applications, mischievous or otherwise. It currently take...

 We would like to give you an update on the  'KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON'   campaign and our actions to cancel the EU trade mark registration for  'KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON'  by a company belonging to Mr Mark Coop. The trade mark registration gives the owner trade mark rights in all EU countries over posters, clothing, household items and other merchandise.  Firstly we are grateful to all those who have supplied evidence to us of  ‘KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON’  products being sold. This will be submitted soon. As expected, Mr Coop’s team has responded to our action to cancel the trade mark but we are pleased to say that there is nothing in his arguments or evidence that we were not anticipating. We have prepared arguments on why in law the registration should not have been accepted.  If anyone has evidence of volume sales, supported by invoices or other paperwork, to high profile high street retailers (e.g. department stores) these would ...

 Fake goods are nothing new but a trade mark can stop a rogue competitor in their tracks. Professional Golf Europe (PGE), a leading manufacturer of high end Golf equipment with brands such as VEGA and Radius putters, recently took action against a Chinese supplier selling fake versions of PGE's merchandise on Ebay. “Once we alerted eBay to our trade mark they removed the offending items from sale, but without it we wouldn’t have had a leg to stand on,” said Peter Lord, Director of Professional Golf Europe (PGE). PGE’s brands are trade mark protected worldwide, with the help of Trade Mark Direct, ensuring it can stop any infringements quickly.  This includes in the Far East (a fakers’ paradise) where it manufactures. Amazon and eBay honour trade marks but a company must prove they have legal rights of ownership. Check now to see if your business name is available, it only takes a couple of minutes.

 The Guardian, in a piece headlined 'You can say it's 2012…but unless you're a sponsor don't mention the Olympics', wrote about the extensive constraints on companies when it comes to anything associated with the Olympics.   In 2006 the London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Act was passed, which, together with the Olympic Symbol (Protection) Act of 1995 provides "a special level of protection to the Games and their sponsors over and above existing copyright or contract law.”  Be warned, “a breach of these acts is a criminal offence". The Guardian noted that “as well as introducing an additional layer of protection around the word "Olympics", the five-rings symbol and the Games' mottoes, the major change of the legislation is to outlaw unauthorised "association". This bars non-sponsors from employing images or wording that might suggest too close a link with the Games. “ This means that all of the following expressions could be c...

  Mark Kingsley-Williams, founder and director of Trade Mark Direct, is quoted in this weekend’s   Financial Times (24 – 25 March 2012)   on the issue of branding.  See the excerpt below: “Mark Kingsley-Williams, founder of Trade Mark Direct, an online legal support service, says the classic mistake is to believe that it is enough to register a business name at Companies House or buy the web address. It isn’t. “The growth of the internet has made branding a minefield for many small businesses, Kingsley-Williams adds. “For small and medium-sized businesses in particular, a lot of the business they attract is coming through people searching online, whereas previously that business may have come through Yellow Pages advertising. “As a result, people are resorting to all manner of ways to do down their competitors online. “Whereas before if somebody was operating in a particular line of business in Scotland and using the same name as another business in Penzance, the two...

 In 2012 a shocking number of businesses, around 90% [1]  of SMEs, are putting their livelihoods at risk by trading online without a trade mark, estimates Trade Mark Direct, the UK’s leading trade mark company.  It can cost a company thousands to re-brand.  The cost to Frazer Evett, from Christian Clothing Alliance, who was forced to re-brand his company, as another company already owned the name, was £27,941.  “This included stock we couldn’t sell, employing a designer to re-brand, re-working the website, re-ordering stationery, loss of materials and lost sales while rebranding,” said Frazer Evett.   Only 30,270 [2]  trade marks were registered in 2010 and this is despite over 400,555 new companies being registered [3]  (financial year 2010 – 2011) and as some will be for well-established companies it shows that far less than 1 in 10 new companies are trade marking their business name.     “Trading online without a trade ...