China is now the second largest economy on the planet, and has become a key market for businesses worldwide. So, securing ownership of your brand in China should be an important part of your plans. While the Chinese system of...

‘I have endeavoured in this Ghostly little book, to raise the Ghost of an Idea, which shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves, with each other, with the season, or with me. May it haunt their houses pleasantly,...

Whilst the most common use of trademarks is to legally protect brand names or logos, this is by no means the only way in which a trademark reinforces a brand.

Trademarks act to identify the source of a good or service to consu...

Choosing names that say what your business does on the tin may not be the best approach to choosing domain names online, despite it being an approach many businesses have adopted in the past.

Often, it seems like a good idea ...

Updated note (2025): This post was originally written in 2013 and has been updated to reflect the significant changes brought about by Brexit. Since 1 January 2021, UK and EU trademark protection are entirely separate. An EUTM...

Since writing my book, Legally Branded, a number of business owners have thanked me for making this fundamentally important subject of intellectual property (particularly trade marks) understandable.

Some entrepreneur friend...

If ever there was an ideal example of the importance of ensuring the right intellectual property procedures are in place, Innocent's trademark difficulties (2013) demonstrates it.

Despite being one of the UK and Europe’s top smo...

In any business there will be rules that management and staff need to follow. Some will be more important than others. For example, to safeguard a company’s intellectual property rights, there are a couple of useful procedures tha...

A recent article by Shireen Smith on the subject of crowdfunding, was published by the Guardian in June, and explains why it is particularly crucial for early stage businesses to protect their intellectual property before pitchin...

Often, businesses treat intellectual property just as something they need to own and register, without giving enough thought to the risk of infringement. Even where the risk of infringement is considered, business owners don’t o...

The notion that the main consideration when choosing a new brand name is its availability as a .com domain is widespread. What is less well known is that you may not be free to use your chosen domain name if the name would infrin...

It can be difficult when you start up to know how to spend your resources. Keeping a tight rein on expenses is essential in the early days, but it’s equally important not to neglect important issues like intellectual property ...