trade mark
Trade Mark is the legal fence you build around your brand name, logo or slogan so nobody else can wear your name and take your customers.
In plain English
So you have built something people recognise, maybe a small chops brand in Yaba or a skincare line your cousins in Peckham keep asking you to ship over, and one day you see someone else using a name suspiciously close to yours. Can they just do that? Is there anything actually stopping them? This is exactly the question a trade mark answers.
A trade mark is a sign, it could be a name, a logo, a slogan or even a distinctive colour combination, that you register to show the public and the law that this particular mark belongs to your business and nobody else's. Once it is registered, you have the right to stop other people from using something confusingly similar to sell competing goods or services.
In Nigeria, you register a trade mark with the Trademarks, Patents and Designs Registry under the Ministry of Trade. It is not automatic just because you have been using a name for years, you actually have to apply, and the process can take months, sometimes over a year, because the registry checks if your mark is too similar to an existing one before approving it.
In the United Kingdom, the same idea runs through the Intellectual Property Office, and many Nigerians in the diaspora running small businesses, from braiding salons to food delivery brands, register there because a UK trade mark protects them specifically in that market, separate from whatever they may have registered back home.
Here is the part people miss. A trade mark protects your brand identity, not your product idea and not your business method. Someone can sell jollof rice seasoning too, they just cannot call it Mama Ngozi's Secret Blend if you already own that name.
Think of your trade mark as the surname of your business. Anyone can open a restaurant, but only you can be the one true Chidi's Kitchen once that name is yours in law.
A skincare founder in Lagos registers the name Glowbie as a trade mark for ₦40,000 through an agent, covering filing and processing fees. Two years later, another seller starts a nearly identical brand called Glowbee. Because the mark is registered, the founder can send a cease and desist letter and, if needed, take legal action to stop the copycat from trading under that name.
Questions people ask
Do I need to register a trade mark before I start selling under a name?
You can start trading first, many small businesses do, but the longer you wait to register, the more risk you carry that someone else registers a similar name before you and forces you to rebrand. It is safer to file as soon as you know the name is sticking around.
How long does a trade mark last once it is registered?
In Nigeria it lasts seven years initially and can be renewed indefinitely in further periods, as long as you keep paying renewal fees and keep using the mark. In the UK it is ten years at a time, also renewable. It does not expire on its own as long as you look after it.
What happens if someone uses a name similar to mine but I never registered it?
You may still have some protection under a concept called passing off, where courts recognise you built up goodwill under that name even without registration, but proving it is harder, slower and more expensive than simply having a registered trade mark to point to.
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