Protection under a Registered Trade Mark

The proprietor of a registered trade mark has the exclusive right to use the mark for the class/es of goods or services under which it is registered. Registration entitles you to prevent use by another of an identical or similar mark.

There are however certain circumstances where use of your marks by another trader is legally permitted, i.e. it does not infringe. A competitor may use your mark in comparative advertising if such use does not take unfair advantage of another mark with reputation, does not create confusion, and is also fair in certain other ways permitted by the relevant law.

Whilst your rights are protected from the date of application for registration, trade mark infringement proceedings cannot be begun before the mark has been registered or before the interest of a user of the mark has been registered. Registration lasts for ten years initially and is renewable for further ten year periods. However, it can be revoked if, for no good reason, five years have passed since registration and you have never used the mark, or it is five years since you last used the mark, or you acquiesced in the use of a conflicting mark, or the mark has become generic i.e. it has become generally used for other products or services (e.g. "Hoover" is generic for vacuum cleaners). The risk of revocation demonstrates the need to police the mark properly after registration.