Back to brand school: Is your IP ready for a new season?

28th Aug 2025

As pupils across the UK ready themselves for the new school year, discover the steps you can take to prepare your brand for a new season.

No matter how many years pass since being at school, the termtime rhythm seems to have instilled a boost of productivity in us all every September. A new beginning, a fresh start, and the perfect time to get your trade mark portfolios in order. 

After all, in the world of IP, every day is (quite literally) a school day.

Have you got everything?

This is a question that will undoubtedly be heard up-and-down the country over the coming weeks.

However, it’s a key question for brand owners too – more specifically, have you got all of the registered trade mark protection you need to cover your business’s present and future interests?

The importance of scheduling IP reviews at regular intervals throughout the year cannot be overstated, since businesses often move quickly and a new idea could easily be progressed and implemented without the trade mark portfolio being correspondingly updated.

The following is a handy checklist outlining the types of questions to consider as part of an IP review, either internally as a business or together with a trade mark attorney:

1. Do you own trade mark registrations (or pending applications) for all of your brand name(s) and, if applicable, logo(s), tagline(s) and other distinctive indicia?

If the answer to this question is no, carrying out an IP audit to identify all of the signs used by your business that could benefit from registered trade mark protection is recommended.

2. Is your business active in markets where you do not have trade mark protection?

3. Is your business presently looking to expand into markets where you do not have trade mark protection?

If the answer to either of the above questions is yes, availability searching in the concerned territory or territories should be carried out as a first step, before devising a suitable international filing strategy that ensures your business is protected, not just at home but abroad.

4. Have you recently expanded the product/service offering under any of your trade marks?

If the answer to this question is yes, you should review the scope of your existing trade mark registration(s) to check that the new product/service offering is covered by the specification (being the goods/services listed in the registration).

If it is determined that the new product or service does not fall within the scope of your existing trade mark registration(s), a fresh application should be filed to address this gap in coverage – bearing in mind that it is not possible to add extra goods/services to a trade mark once it has been filed.

5. Have you updated any elements of your branding, such as a logo, which departs from your registered trade mark(s)?

If the answer to this question is yes, and the changes are such that the new and registered logo differ in distinctive ways, filing a fresh trade mark application should be considered. 

[Note: generally speaking, it is not possible to update an existing trade mark, hence the need to potentially re-file in the event of branding changes.]

6. Are any new signs in the pipeline, such as a new sub-brand or product launch?

If the answer to this question is yes, it is important to establish an approximate timescale to launch and devise a trade mark protection strategy accordingly.

As a first step, availability searches should be carried out to identify any possible risks associated with the proposed use/registration of the new sign(s).

Are you keeping track of deadlines?

In much the same way as pupils’ homework planners, brand owners should keep track of key dates relating to their IP portfolio throughout the coming year. Appointing a legal representative with a docketing system can assist with this, but it is still good practice to keep on top of deadlines internally.

IP is a constant cycle of due dates that need to be met, to avoid consequences which can be as serious as losing your rights. Some of these key dates and deadlines are as follows:

• Renewal deadlines – UK trade marks must be renewed every 10 years, counted from their filing date. Failure to renew in time (or during the subsequent six-month grace period) would result in the expiry of the registration.
• Non-use grace period – Whilst UK trade marks last for 10-year periods (as above), from five years post-registration onwards they can be challenged by third parties if that trade mark is not being used commercially in connection with the registered goods/services. Therefore, knowing when that five-year non-use grace period ends is crucial to ensure that your business is on track to launch and grow activities under that trade mark within this timeframe.
• Priority deadlines – When the first application is filed for a trade mark, it sets off a six-month ‘priority’ window. This means that, during the six-month period following the application filing date, identical applications can be filed in other countries – claiming ‘priority’ – and enjoy rights that are effectively back-dated to the date of the first application. This priority deadline is therefore an important date within international filing strategies.
• Opposition deadlines – If you need to enforce your trade mark rights against a later application, you should keep track of the opposition deadline – especially if the parties are negotiating, which can sometimes distract from statutory deadlines.
• Defence deadlines – Conversely, if a third party opposes your trade mark application, the deadline for filing a Defence must be logged and met. In a recent case at the UK Intellectual Property Office (Shenzhen SKE Technology Co., Ltd v Bargain Busting Limited, O/0531/25), an application was deemed to have been abandoned following the submission of a Defence one day late, highlighting the strict approach adopted by the Office in such circumstances.

Is everything correctly labelled?

Labelling enables us to correctly identify the owner of a particular piece of property, i.e., uniform, stationary, textbooks etc.

When it comes to IP, however, maintaining/updating the owner details is an often-overlooked step, perhaps because of the additional cost involved, or because businesses are having to juggle numerous competing priorities.

However, whether it’s recording an assignment, or a change of name/address, ensuring that the information recorded on Trade Mark Register(s) is accurate is not only good practice, but has meaningful implications:

• If your business does not have a recorded legal representative, ensuring that the owner name, address and contact details are up to date on the Register is essential for receiving communications from the Intellectual Property Office, and/or from third parties seeking to reach the brand owner.

If these details are incorrect, such communications (and, crucially, any deadlines they contain) could be sent to an old office or email address and thus missed.

• If the change of details has arisen from an assignment, recording the new owner’s details against the concerned trade mark(s) is important to ensure that the new owner can derive all of the benefits of being the registered proprietor (for example, entitlement to costs in trade mark infringement proceedings).

Regular reviews of your trade marks, staying on top of deadlines, and maintaining accurate records may seem like administrative tasks, but they form the foundation of a robust intellectual property strategy.

If you’re looking for any support or guidance on trade mark protection, consider consulting with a Chartered Trade Mark Attorney who can provide tailored advice based on your specific business needs and objectives.

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