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Trade marks are ways of protecting a business operation. Especially the brand or the business process. Like Design Rights, trade marks can be registered or unregistered. Providing that you are not infringing a third party trade mark by 'passing off' your goods and services as theirs you can get the protection of a trade mark just by using it. If the trade mark is likely to become valuable, or you just want to ensure that you can continue to use it for your business, then you can register the trade mark. It costs approximately £200 to register. You cannot register common descriptive words as a trade mark. The mark must be unique. For example you could not register "The Best Toy Shop" as a trademark, but "Toys R Us" has been. You can get more details from the UK Intellectual Property Office web site.
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The first rule is to keep it confidential until you have a legal form of protection in place. Generally you will not be able to get protection for your idea if you tell other people about it. This is called "putting your idea in the public domain". If you have to tell other people about your idea then make sure that you have a confidentiality agreement in place.This is essential if you want to apply for a patent later. You can see a typical confidentiality agreement in the TBB Inventor Pack. For some ideas continued secrecy formalised by legal agreements may be the way to go. For the vast majority of ideas there are four methods of protection.
A patent is suitable for protecting the functional or technical aspects of products or processes. It covers how things work, what they are made of, and how they are made. A UK patent lasts for 20 years and gives the patent owner the exclusive rights to exploit the patent for that time. It is vital that your idea is kept confidential before you apply for a Patent. The initial patent application is free, but there is a charge of £200 payable to the UK Intellectual Property Office within one year to process the application. The idea must be 'new' for an application to succeed. Once you have a patent you can license or sell it to someone so that they can make products based on the idea. Although you can apply for a Patent personally, it is a good idea to get professional advice to make sure that your patent really does protect your idea. Have a look at our Patents page for more information about where you can get help. Our Frequently Asked Questions page also has more information about patents.
Copyright is automatically granted to the author of any artistic or literary work. For example a picture, drawing, or description of an idea.The length of time it lasts is for at least the lifetime of the author. It only prevents copying of the original work. It does not prevent the idea that is described being used by someone else. You can grant rights to someone to make copies of the published items. For example this web site is covered by Copyright and no one can copy the contents or appearance without our permission. The Copyright symbol © can be used to show that the material is protected by copyright but it is not essential.
Design Rights can be a powerful method of protection. They can be used instead of or with a Patent. Design Rights cover the appearance of a product. For example if you design a new type of chair you are unlikely to be able to get a patent for a chair because a chair is not a new idea. However, you can stop people copying your chair design by invoking your design rights. Design rights can be unregistered or registered. Unregistered rights exist automatically, but you would have to prove when and where you created the design if you wanted to take legal action against somebody else. If you register your design it is much easier to prove infringement. Registration of a design with the UK Intellectual Property Office is straightforward and costs £60. It can last for up to 25 years. The UK Intellectual Property Office web site has a lot of useful information about these and other rights.