Registering your company name

A company cannot be established without an appropriate name. If the name has potential for branding, it can quickly gain popularity and be associated with the quality of your products or services. This is why it’s important to protect it. By registering your company name as a trademark, you ensure that you retain exclusive rights to your brand.

How to register a company name

Before getting your business up and running, the first step is to register your company name. If you wish to start your business as a limited company, you need to ensure that your name isn’t the same as, or too similar to, an existing business name. If it is, you may be required to change it. The name must end in ‘Limited’ or ‘Ltd.’ If you’re registering the company in Wales, ‘Cyfyngedig’ and ‘Cyf’ are also acceptable.

If you’re a sole trader, you can trade under your own name or choose a different name to distinguish the business from your personal identity. The business name and your personal name must appear on all official paperwork and invoices. Sole trader business names cannot include terms like ‘Ltd’, ‘Limited’, ‘Limited Liability Partnership’ (LLP), ‘Public Limited Company’ (PLC), or ‘plc’. There are strict rules about the names and words you can use for your sole trader business, and you can find them on GOV.UK.

When it comes to partnerships, similar to sole trading, you can trade using your own names or choose another name. You don’t need to formally register the business name for a partnership, but all partners’ names, as well as the business name, must be included on official documents such as invoices.

When considering which business name to register, you might also want to ensure that a corresponding domain name is available if you plan to establish an online presence. To fully protect your brand, you should consider registering your business name as a trademark with the UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO).

How to register a trademark

The term ‘trademark’ refers to any distinctive symbol, name, or design that identifies and differentiates the goods or services of one company from another. This can include company names, logos, slogans, product names, or even packaging that represents the brand. A trademark is a valuable form of intellectual property that ensures your brand stands out in the market.

In the UK, you can trademark the same company name that you’ve registered with Companies House, and you can also trademark other elements such as a slogan, logo, or the name of a product or service you offer. A registered trademark gives you exclusive rights to its use, provided you continue to use it in business.

Registering a trademark with the UK Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) provides several benefits, including the right to:

• Use the ‘®’ symbol next to your brand, indicating that it’s a registered trademark.
• Take legal action against anyone who uses your trademark without permission.
• License or sell your trademark to others.

Trademarks can last indefinitely, as long as you continue to use them in commerce. However, a trademark must be renewed every 10 years. Once registered, your trademark is protected only in the UK. If you want your trademark to be protected in other countries or regions, such as the EU or internationally, you will need to apply for EU trademarks or International trademarks.

The process of registering a trademark typically takes about four months, assuming there are no objections. However, it’s important to conduct a thorough trademark search to ensure that your mark is unique and doesn’t conflict with existing trademarks. If someone else can prove that their use of the trademark predates yours, your trademark rights could be challenged.

If you’re considering expanding internationally, you can research how to protect your trademark abroad through the EU and International Trademarks process.

Is my trademark protected in a foreign country?

If you decide to use your trademark outside the UK, you need to apply to the trademark office in each respective country. To simplify the process, there are European and international application systems that cover many countries, offering several benefits:

• Less paperwork
• Lower costs (both for filing and agents)
• Faster results
• Simple application process

A prerequisite for applying for an international trademark is that you must first have a base application or registration in the UK before you can apply for an international trademark.

You can apply for protection in multiple countries through the Madrid Protocol, which allows you to register your trademark in multiple countries with a single application. To do this, you file with the International Bureau of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), referencing your UK trademark application.

As of March 2025, the Madrid Union comprises 115 members, encompassing 131 countries, meaning your trademark could be protected in all of them. However, be aware that the international system only allows you to apply for a single trademark (mark) per application. Unlike in the UK, where you can apply for several marks under one application, the Madrid system requires separate applications for multiple marks.

Can all names be trademarked?

If you’re in the donut-making business, you might have thought about trademarking the term ‘donuts’ as your brand name and maybe even securing the domain donuts.co.uk. Unfortunately, that won’t work, as the law doesn’t allow companies to claim generic or descriptive terms as their proprietary marks. Words like ‘chairs’, ‘dogs’, ‘computer’, and other common terms are generally not eligible for trademark protection. These words are considered too generic, as everyone should have the right to use them to describe their products or services. This is why they cannot be trademarked.

One notable UK case involved the British Sugar Plc v. James Robertson & Sons Ltd case in 1996. British Sugar tried to trademark the word ‘TREAT’ for confectionery, but the court ruled that the term was too descriptive and not distinctive enough for a trademark.

Another interesting case is Apple Inc., which is allowed to use the name ‘Apple’ because it operates in the technology and electronics sector, not the food sector. This is a key point in trademark law: a name that might be generic in one industry can be trademarked in another if it’s distinctive enough within that sector.

Trademarks that have become generic and genericised

Even though you have legally protected a trademark, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it will remain protected forever. In rare cases, some trademarks that have become genericised can lose their legal protection. This process is known as genericide, where a trademark becomes a common term used to refer to a type of product or service, rather than a specific brand.

For example, Thermos was originally a trademark of Thermos GmbH, but over time it became synonymous with all vacuum flasks, regardless of the manufacturer. As a result, Thermos lost its trademark protection in some jurisdictions.

Here are some other examples of trademarks that have become genericised:

• Aspirin (originally a trademark of Bayer, now commonly used for any acetylsalicylic acid product)
• Catseye (referring to reflective road markings, originally a trademark)
• Escalator (originally a trademark, now a generic term for moving stairs)
• Flip phone (originally a term trademarked by certain companies, now used generally)
• Sellotape (a trademark of a brand of adhesive tape, now commonly used generically in the UK)
• Trampoline (originally trademarked but became a general term for the type of equipment)
• Videotape (originally a brand name, but now a generic term for magnetic tape used for video recording).

Please refer to the legal notice for this article.