If you're wondering how to trademark a name in the UK, the short version is this: search the register, file with the UK IPO, choose the right classes, and budget from £205 if you file online. A straightforward application can take several months from filing to registration, with the exact timing depending on examination and publication dates.
The longer version, the one that actually gets you registered without a costly restart, covers the search, the classes, the real trademark registration cost, and the wider IP you should be locking down alongside it.
Why Trademarking Early Matters
Working out how to trademark a name early matters because it's the one core business asset that isn't protected automatically. A trademark gives you exclusive rights to use your business name for the goods or services you register it against, and registering early makes it far easier to prove ownership if someone else starts trading under a similar name later. Registration does not physically prevent someone from copying your brand, but it gives you stronger legal rights to challenge infringement once they do.
It's also worth knowing what a trademark doesn't cover. A common misconception is that copyright protects your business name it doesn't. Copyright protects creative works (your website copy, your logo artwork); it does nothing for the name itself. And for anything you're not ready to register a process, a pricing model, early-stage know-how and an NDA is the right tool, not a registration.
For founders building a brand people will actually remember, doing this before your first big funding round or press mention is the difference between owning your name outright and negotiating for it later.
Searching and Registering With the UK IPO
The process starts with a free trademark search UK founders can run through the IPO's own register, checking for anything identical or confusingly similar before filing form TM3 for a UK IPO trademark application. Skipping this step can mean spending the filing fee on an application that faces an avoidable conflict.
Once you file, the IPO examines your application for formalities and absolute grounds for refusal things like being too generic or descriptive and sends an examination report in roughly 20 working days, by post or by email if you filed online. If your mark clears examination, it's published in the Trade Marks Journal, opening a window for third parties to oppose it. No opposition, or any opposition resolved in your favour, and you move to registration.
Three routes exist for filing a UK IPO trademark. Standard Examination is the default. Right Start splits the fee into two stages: you pay half upfront, get the examiner's feedback, then pay the remainder only if you decide to proceed, currently £125 at each stage for one class, plus £60 per additional class. Fast Track exists in principle but wasn't running as a live option at the time of writing, so don't bank on it speeding things up.
Trademark Classes, Costs and Timelines
Once you've worked out how to trademark a name, the next question is what it actually costs. A UK trademark registration cost starts at £205 online for one class, plus £60 for each additional class, under the fee structure that's been in force since 1 April 2026 the first rise in trademark fees since 1998, an average 25% lift across the IPO's services.
Classes matter more than most founders expect. Goods and services sit across 45 classes under the Nice Classification system, and your registered trademark only covers the classes and terms you actually select, leave out a relevant one and your protection may not extend to those goods or services. You also can't add new terms once you've filed, so a gap discovered later usually means a separate application rather than a quick fix. A restaurant, for example, may need Class 43 for the dining service itself, plus additional classes if it also sells branded food or other goods under the mark.
On timing, the IPO itself describes its guidance as indicative only, with timings varying by application. A straightforward filing can take several months from submission to registration; once a mark clears publication with no opposition, registration typically follows within a few weeks. The standard opposition period is two months from publication, with the possibility of an extension to three. Build your launch plans around that fixed window rather than the fastest case you've read on a blog.
Copyright, Patents and Designs to Consider Too
Copyright protection in the UK is automatic; you don't apply, you don't pay, and there's no register to file with. It covers original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic work the moment you create it, along with non-literary written work like your website copy and software. Marking something with © is optional; it doesn't change your level of protection either way.
Ownership isn't always as simple as "whoever wrote it." Under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, work created by an employee as part of their job usually belongs to the company that employed them. Freelance or commissioned work usually stays with the person who made it, unless the contract says otherwise exactly why that contract needs to say otherwise if you're commissioning a logo or your site copy.
Design right works similarly to copyright: automatic, no fee. The shape and configuration of a 3D object is protected the moment it exists, for ten years from first sale or fifteen from creation, whichever comes first. A product's surface appearance gets a shorter unregistered right three years from when you first make it public. Formal registration is what extends protection beyond that, and starts from £60 for one design online.
Common Mistakes That Delay Registration
Most delays trace back to mistakes founders make early in the process of learning how to trademark a name, not to a backlog at the IPO. Choosing a class that's too broad or too narrow is the most frequent one "retail services relating to X" needs the X to genuinely match what you sell. Founders also routinely discover they need a second class only after filing, and since terms can't be added retrospectively, that often means a second application.
Filing a name that's too descriptive is the other big one, something like "Fresh Bakery London" is exactly the kind of mark an examiner is likely to flag as not distinctive enough. And skipping the trademark search UK step before filing is the fastest way to invite an opposition you could have avoided for free.
FAQs
1. How do you trademark a name in the UK?
You search the register, file form TM3 with the UK IPO, and if nobody opposes within the two-month window receive your certificate a few weeks later. Running a trademark search UK first, via the IPO's free tool, is the step most founders skip and regret.
2. How much does a UK trademark cost?
A UK IPO trademark costs from £205 for one class online, or £250 on paper, plus £60 per additional class, since the fee increase on 1 April 2026. Renewing every ten years brings a further £245 trademark registration cost per class.
3.What IP should startups protect early?
Your business name is the top priority working out how to trademark a name early protects the one asset that isn't covered automatically, unlike copyright or design right, which apply the moment you create something.
That's the complete picture of how to trademark a name in the UK: the search, the classes, the cost, and the timeline that gets you there.
Also read: How to Find Angel Investors in the UK: Where the Money Actually Sits
Sources: Data drawn from the UK Intellectual Property Office's official fees pages, GOV.UK guidance and news releases, the Trade Marks Rules 2008, and the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Figures reflect the fee structure in place since 1 April 2026 and the most recent available data at time of writing.
The EP+ Editorial Desk covers UK startups, founder stories, and venture capital. All editorial content is independently produced and human-reviewed before publication.
