Trade marks are more valuable than ever – 150 years on from the first
Chartered Trade Mark Attorney, Alexandra Nott explores some of the reasons that trade mark protection remains crucial in today’s business environment.
1876 was a pivotal year for intellectual property (IP).
On the trade mark side, it saw the establishment of the UK’s Trade Mark Registry on 1st January and the first UK registered trade mark whilst, on the other side of the Atlantic, Alexander Graham Bell was granted a US patent for the telephone, making the first successful telephone call on 10th March.
Clearly, 1876 was already proving to be a year of innovation and technological advancement. However, as we now know, the rate of commercial and technological change since that time has been exponential, and businesses – as well as the law – are constantly having to adapt in order to keep up.
A useful visualisation has been published by the World Economic Forum, from which the author highlights how, from 1800 onwards, “many major inventions…rapidly followed one after the other”, particularly in the field of communications where we saw the progression “from writing, to paper, to the printing press, to the telegraph, the telephone, the radio, all the way to the Internet and smartphones”, all within an exceptionally short period of time.
Therefore, against this backdrop, the launch of the UK’s Trade Mark Registry could not have been more perfectly timed – it stood, and continues to stand, ready to help businesses protect their brands in a rapidly altering commercial landscape.
Increasingly competitive market
One of the clearest differences between then and now is the sheer number of businesses that are active in the UK. Even between 2000 and 2020, the UK private-sector business population increased by 72%, or 2.5mil.
Invariably, the greater number of entities doing business and trading means that there is a correspondingly higher risk of businesses coming into IP conflict with one another as they jostle for brand position in their respective industries.
By extension, there is an increased need for businesses to secure trade mark protection in order to better preserve and enforce their rights against others.
The crowded marketplace, and correspondingly crowded Trade Mark Register, can also make it difficult for new businesses to get a foothold.
Working with a Chartered Trade Mark Attorney to conduct trade mark availability searching before launching a new business is thus now more important than ever, and businesses need to be prepared to have a number of potential brand names under consideration should their first, second, and even third choices already be in use and/or registered by someone else.
Brand coexistence can often be negotiated but, in such a competitive world, it is often the case that detailed search and filing strategies need to be developed to help new or re-branding businesses find a path through the hundreds of thousands of trade marks already in existence.
Industry shifts
Another dramatic change from 1876 to 2026 is the nature of the goods and services that people are buying and selling. As a consequence, the goods/services for which UK trade marks are registered have shifted dramatically over time.
A good illustration of this is to compare the ‘classes’ lists (used to categorise goods/services for the purposes of registration) between then and now.
Firstly, a table published by the National Archives shows the 50 classes established by the UK Trade Mark Registration Act of 1875. Of particular note is the 13 classes (23-35) dedicated to textiles (not including clothing or furnishings), which can be contrasted with the one or two classes (23/24) for such goods now, reflecting the dominance of the textiles (especially cotton) industry within the UK at the time.
[A fun fact for IP history fans: originally, the UK Trade Mark Registry included an office in Manchester that was set up specifically to deal with trade mark applications relating to cotton, such was the significance of the industry in 1876.]
Today, the class system in place is the internationally-recognised Nice Classification, such that the goods/services lists no longer reflect a particular country’s core industries, and across recent editions there has (unsurprisingly) been an influx of digital goods/services in many categories.
For instance, the latest edition – which came into effect on 1 January 2026 – recognises artificial intelligence as a service, and draws a clearer distinction between traditional spectacles and electronic smart glasses.
The mirroring of the rise and fall of different product and service industries over time within the trade mark classification system demonstrates the consistent importance of registered trade marks. Just as the system recognised the need to protect the interests of the Lancashire cotton mills in the 1800-1900s, it has evolved to be able to protect the interests of businesses across a wide-range of existing and emerging industries in the 21st century.
We can see this in practice if we look at trade marks relating to, for instance, The Guardian news publication. In 1960, ‘THE GUARDIAN’ trade mark was registered for “Printed matter, newspapers and periodical publications”. In contrast, today this trade mark is registered across a variety of classes for many more goods/services including interactive websites, online communications, and apps.
Chartered Trade Mark Attorneys can help brand owners to routinely review their registered trade marks and obtain additional coverage as required to ensure that their IP portfolios keep up-to-date with these societal shifts.
Evolution of commerce
The internet has dramatically changed the commercial landscape, altering both the channels of trade and businesses’ reach.
Perhaps the biggest opportunity for businesses today compared with 1876 is also their greatest IP challenge, i.e. the ability to market and sell goods and services across borders with greater ease.
Whilst globalisation has made it possible for businesses to reach consumers internationally, this has given rise to a tension with the ‘territorial’ nature of registered trade marks (in the sense that, as a general rule, trade mark protection must be sought on a country-by-country basis).
Therefore, as well as clearing and filing trade marks in the UK, businesses increasingly need to seek legal assistance to conduct these steps in a number of additional territories worldwide.
These steps should also be taken at a relatively early stage, to avoid the scenario where, for example, a trade mark that is available for use/registration in the UK later faces obstacles in the EU (with the knock-on effect that this could have for the growth of the business).
In short, whilst registered trade marks remain crucial in the UK, since 1876 the importance of UK business owners protecting their brands in other markets has grown.
Turning to the channels of trade, businesses are increasingly doing away with physical offices/brick-and-mortar stores in favour of an exclusively online presence, and are swapping print marketing for social media campaigns and sponsored links.
The implications of these changes from an IP perspective are numerous, but include (i) the relative ease with which others can attempt to exploit or copy a brand, such as by securing TLDs, social media handles and keywords corresponding to a company’s registered trade marks, and (ii) the increased risk of confusion between businesses (for example, local service providers operating in different parts of the UK, historically unaware or unconcerned by one another, may now come into conflict in an online setting).
Against this backdrop, registered trade mark protection is vital to best equip businesses to protect their brands, and also to gain access to various online support services (such as enrolling with the Amazon Brand Registry or submitting takedown requests on various social media platforms – e.g., Meta’s Brand Rights Protection system).
Now, as businesses navigate through the latest technological phase and the era of artificial intelligence, alongside the opportunities they will inevitably face new challenges. In particular, the risk of infringement resulting from AI-generated branding.
However, just like their forefathers in 1876, building a robust trade mark portfolio, together with an agile and proactive IP management strategy, will provide a sound basis on which to tackle them.
If you’re looking for guidance on protecting your brand and building an IP strategy, use our Find a Chartered Trade Mark Attorney tool here.
Author
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Alexandra Nott
Chartered Trade Mark Attorney, Dehns