Trade marks...All you need to know. Your trademark is valuable and becomes more valuable over time the more you use it. Some trademarks go on to be worth millions. The value of your names and brands can only be "locked in" by actually protecting them by trademark registration. Domain name and company name registration not enough. Legal exclusivity is only obtained by trade mark registration. If you do not protect you trade marks someone else will. Act now or you will lose the opportunity to capitalise on the power of your own name. Your name may already belong to someone else without you knowing it. They may have registered it already and you may be building up goodwill in a name you do not even own. The value of your brand can be hijacked in this way if you have not protected it and someone else decides to register it first. Trademark Registration If you are using a name in business you can only properly to protect it by registering it as a trademark. This will give you the exclusive right to use the name and to stop others from using it for similar business. If they do you will be able to stop them by legal proceedings and they will be liable to pay you damages by way of compensation. Trademark registration is different from company name registration at Companies House or domain name registration. Neither of these secure the exclusive right to use the name. Infringement You also need to make sure that you do not use a brand name that has been registered as a trademark by someone else. If you do, you can be sued in court for damages and may be required to pay compensation. Many new businesses or new products are launched onto the market without carrying out any trademark checks often with disastrous consequences. The last thing you want after you have spent your launch costs is to be faced with a court order to stop using the name, deliver up all of your infringing product and have to bear all the costs of a re-brand.