Your questions answered

How do I make suggestions or give general feedback about the services of the Intellectual Property Office?

There is an area on the Intellectual Property Office website where anyone can submit their views and suggestions. All types of feedback is welcomed, positive comments confirm that things are being done correctly, whilst negative ones help to highlight areas for improvement. Whatever the issue, it’s simple to say what you think.

Obtaining feedback from customers is a valuable way of measuring satisfaction and learning lessons for the future. Previous customer surveys have shown that, overall, customer satisfaction with the Intellectual Property Office is high (a satisfaction rating of 97.9% in the 2007 annual survey). To maximise the opportunities for customers to be able to comment, an on-line customer satisfaction survey has recently been launched. This survey will only take a few minutes to complete and runs until 31 March 2010.

I have registered my name at Companies House, does this offer me intellectual property protection?

Companies House is responsible for company registration in Great Britain. Company law is different from trade mark law. You cannot stop someone using a trade mark, which is the same or similar to yours, just by registering your name with Companies House.

Registering a company name at Companies House does not offer any Intellectual Property protection in itself. You may have automatic unregistered trade mark rights and may be able to pursue a "passing off action" if another company trades using your brand name.

However, this action can prove difficult and costly.

Registering your trade mark gives you the exclusive right to use your mark for the goods and/or services that it covers in the United Kingdom (UK).

If you have a registered trade mark you can put the ® symbol next to it to warn others against using it. However, using this symbol for a trade mark that is not registered is an offence.

A registered trade mark:

• may put people off using your trade mark without your permission
• allows you to take legal action against anyone who uses your trade mark without your permission
• allows Trading Standards Officers or Police to bring criminal charges against counterfeiters if they use your trade mark
• is your property, which means you can sell it, or let other people have a licence that allows them to use it.