New Year, New Risks as SMEs ignore business basics

by James Agate

According to TradeMark Direct a staggering 85% of small businesses are ignoring a business essential and putting their brand at risk by failing to register a trademark. Could it be that small businesses forget they have a brand or just that they think they’re too small to matter?

Concept House - the Newport HQ of the Intellectual Property Office

As the number of people planning to start new businesses hits its peak this month, a survey of 345 small businesses from TradeMark Direct has revealed some worrying statistics in relation to what is now a business essential – brand protection.

35% of small businesses surveyed said they hadn’t registered their trade mark because they felt it wasn’t important to their business.  According to online trade mark registration service Trade Mark Direct, these businesses are putting their reputation, and the thousands of pounds already spent on branding, at risk.

Businesses who delay registering their trade mark risk their name being registered by a competitor, or later discovering that their name doesn’t comply with trade mark law when they do apply.

37% of businesses who hadn’t registered their trade mark said they simply hadn’t found the time to, 22% said they wouldn’t know how to and 16% were opting not to because of the cost. Although a huge 85% had established their brand on the internet by purchasing an internet domain name for their business, just 15% had taken the essential step of registering that business name as a trade mark.

The survey revealed a lack of awareness of the symbol that denotes a registered trade mark in the UK: Less than half of respondents correctly identified ® as the registered trade mark symbol in the UK, with 48% choosing the US symbol TM and four percent selecting the copyright symbol ©.  Despite this lack of basic knowledge, 71% of those who were registering their trade marks chose to do it themselves directly through the Intellectual Property Office rather than get specialist advice, risking hundreds of pounds in fees if their application is rejected.

Mark Kingsley-Williams from Trade Mark Direct, commented: “This research highlights the common misconceptions about trade marks that many British businesses share.  What’s concerning is that so few businesses realise how important getting the right protection for their company’s name or logo is.”