Registering trade marks is only the first step in protecting your brand. Effective brand protection requires broader steps to safeguard the value of a brand. In this blog post we discuss what trade mark registration achieves, its limitations, and how to close the gap.
A registered trade mark gives its owner the right to stop others using identical or similar signs for the same or similar goods and services. Brand protection is wider. It covers the legal, commercial, technological and reputational steps a business takes to keep its brand valuable.
That gap matters. For many businesses, especially those selling online, the biggest threats don’t always come from classic trade mark infringement. They can come from domain name abuse, counterfeits, impersonation, social media misuse and unauthorised online sales. To see why, it helps to start with what a trade mark actually is.
What is a trade mark?
A trade mark is a sign that distinguishes one business’s goods or services from those of its competitors. It’s usually a name or logo, but it can be a slogan, shape, colour or sound. Its core commercial function is as a badge of origin: it’s how customers find you in a crowded market, and it’s a large part of why they want what you sell.
Registration gives the owner a monopoly over the registered mark for the specific goods and services it covers, which are grouped into classes. The right is territorial. A UK registration protects the UK only, and an EU trade mark isn’t a UK right. In the UK, infringement claims are generally brought under the Trade Marks Act 1994; EU registrations are protected under the EU Trade Mark Regulation.
Your trade mark filing strategy follows from this. File for trade mark protection where you sell, but also consider filing where you manufacture and where goods pass through in transit. Consider covering packaging and labels as well as the word mark. And don’t forget logos and sub-brands.
Not every sign can be registered. The registry will refuse marks that are descriptive, lack distinctiveness or have become generic, because other traders should stay free to use descriptive words. Colour combinations and shapes can be registered, but usually only with evidence that customers see them as indicating origin.
A registration lasts ten years and you can renew it indefinitely, so a trade mark can provide long-term protection for brand owners. It’s also property: you can sell it, license it (including within a corporate group) and charge it, although assignments and licences must be in writing.
Ownership brings real enforcement power under the Trade Marks Act 1994, or EU Trade Mark Regulations. The owner can bring a claim for infringement for use of an identical sign for identical goods or services.
An infringement claim can also be brought for use of an identical or similar sign for similar goods or services where there exists a likelihood of confusion on the part of the public, which includes the likelihood of association with the trade mark.
Marks with a reputation go further, protecting against free riding and dilution even on unrelated goods. Without a registered mark, a brand may be able to rely on passing off, which means proving goodwill, misrepresentation and damage. That route is usually harder and more expensive.
But trade mark registration is a “use it or lose it” right. After five years, an unused mark, or the unused parts of a broad specification, can be revoked, and non-use is a defence to infringement. You can also lose a mark that loses it distinctiveness, for example through becoming the everyday name for a product. Hoover, Biro and Velcro have all worked hard to avoid that fate through educating customers to distinguish their brand name from generic terms for their goods such as vacuum cleaner, ballpoint pen and hook and loop fasteners, through consistent use of pairing the trade mark with the generic term for the goods.
Brand protection: the wider picture
Brand protection is a broader discipline than legal rights. It brings together the legal, technological and commercial measures a business uses to preserve the integrity, reputation and value of its brand, and it works best as continuous risk management rather than a one-off filing exercise.
The threats are varied: infringement, lookalike “dupes”, counterfeits, and bad faith registrations of trade marks and domain names by squatters. No single right can counter all of them, so rights holders need to draw on several.
Alongside trade marks, businesses commonly rely on:
- Registered and unregistered design rights;
- Copyright;
- Passing off;
- Database rights;
- Confidential information and trade secrets;
- Company name rights.
These rights can overlap, which is useful. A single counterfeit product may infringe a registered trade mark, the copyright in its packaging and a registered design all at once, giving the rights holder more than one route to enforcement.
Counterfeiting is where the gap between registration and protection shows most clearly. It remains one of the most commercially damaging threats to global brands: a joint report by the EUIPO and the European Commission found that law enforcement authorities detained 196 million counterfeit goods in 2025.
A registration on its own does little to disrupt counterfeit distribution networks. What makes the difference is putting that registration to work through active programmes such as customs recordals, platform enforcement and monitoring.
The main tools in a brand protection toolkit are:
- Customs: a registered right underpins an Application for Action (AFA), which asks Border Force to detain suspected infringing goods. Without a right on the register there is nothing for Border Force to act on.
- Notice and takedown: requests to hosts, registrars and platforms can remove impersonation websites and listings that mimic the brand.
- Online marketplaces: Amazon Brand Registry and similar platform programmes give rights holders free automated tools to find and report infringing listings, but usually require a registered trade mark to join.
- Litigation: where other measures fail, rights holders can sue infringers and, in some cases, seek orders against intermediaries such as website blocking injunctions.
Where trade marks fit into brand protection
Use of the tools above starts with a registered right. Customs can’t detain goods, marketplaces won’t enrol a brand and courts won’t grant infringement relief without one. But a registration detects nothing. The register is passive, and customs authorities in the UK and the EU rely heavily on rights holders for risk profiles, product guides and officer training. No one else is watching your mark for you.
So, to protect your brand: file where you sell, make and ship; record your rights with customs; enrol in platform programmes; and monitor the register, marketplaces and domain names. Later articles in this series look at each of these anti-counterfeiting tools in more detail.
How we can help
Whether you are dealing with counterfeits now or want to protect your brand before they appear, our IP team can help you find the right approach, from prevention through to enforcement. To discuss how we can help, please get in touch with Oliver Fairhurst or Aaron Trebble.
