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Hi all,
I'm a bit confused about the law surrounding trade marks and am hoping someone can answer a few questions for me.
Let's say I wanted to start a company in the UK named after a word in the dictionary, like "Subliminal", for example. My business will be in the entertainment industry, but the plan is to also get things like tshirts, caps, keyrings, mugs etc made up with the company name and the custom-designed company logo for promotional reasons. I've chosen a font, designed a logo and I plan to have the word all in uppercase for the branding.
I go on to the UK government's trade mark search site and I see that there are 5 results returned when I search for "subliminal". Four of those are in Europe and one is in the UK.
Two of the European ones are in class 41 (entertainment, education, sporting and cultural activities) with the trade mark text as "SUBLIMINAL" and "subliminal" respectively.
Two of the European ones are in classes 25 & 28 (clothes, shoes, headwear & toys) with the trade mark text as "SUBLIMINAL"
The UK one is in class 25 (clothes, shoes and headwear) with the trade mark text as "SUBLIMINAL"
Q1: Does this mean I can't trade mark "SUBLIMINAL" at all for my business, because it's already trade marked in uppercase within all the industry classes I'd be operating in?
Q2: If no to the above (i.e. I can still use the trade mark for my business), if I were to start producing tshirts, caps, mugs, keyrings etc with just the word "subliminal" on them in my chosen company font and style, would that leave me open to legal action from any of the above trade mark holders?
Q3: If, further down the line, a business decides it also wants to start having, say, aprons produced with its company name on them and aprons fall into a different category (24- textiles, household etc), does it then have to re-apply for its trade mark under the new category?
Hopefully that makes sense. Any advice appreciated!
I'm a bit confused about the law surrounding trade marks and am hoping someone can answer a few questions for me.
Let's say I wanted to start a company in the UK named after a word in the dictionary, like "Subliminal", for example. My business will be in the entertainment industry, but the plan is to also get things like tshirts, caps, keyrings, mugs etc made up with the company name and the custom-designed company logo for promotional reasons. I've chosen a font, designed a logo and I plan to have the word all in uppercase for the branding.
I go on to the UK government's trade mark search site and I see that there are 5 results returned when I search for "subliminal". Four of those are in Europe and one is in the UK.
Two of the European ones are in class 41 (entertainment, education, sporting and cultural activities) with the trade mark text as "SUBLIMINAL" and "subliminal" respectively.
Two of the European ones are in classes 25 & 28 (clothes, shoes, headwear & toys) with the trade mark text as "SUBLIMINAL"
The UK one is in class 25 (clothes, shoes and headwear) with the trade mark text as "SUBLIMINAL"
Q1: Does this mean I can't trade mark "SUBLIMINAL" at all for my business, because it's already trade marked in uppercase within all the industry classes I'd be operating in?
Q2: If no to the above (i.e. I can still use the trade mark for my business), if I were to start producing tshirts, caps, mugs, keyrings etc with just the word "subliminal" on them in my chosen company font and style, would that leave me open to legal action from any of the above trade mark holders?
Q3: If, further down the line, a business decides it also wants to start having, say, aprons produced with its company name on them and aprons fall into a different category (24- textiles, household etc), does it then have to re-apply for its trade mark under the new category?
Hopefully that makes sense. Any advice appreciated!
