Trade Mark Ownership

Who owns the rights to a name, logo or slogan in the UK — how to search the trade mark register, and how registered rights differ from owning the business behind a brand.

How trade mark ownership works

A registered trade mark is a right to stop others using a name or mark for specified goods and services. It is property, it can be sold and licensed independently of the business, and it is registered to a named proprietor on a public register.

Find a UK trade mark owner

The Intellectual Property Office’s search is free and can be searched by mark, by owner or by number. Searching by owner is the most revealing: it lists a group’s entire UK portfolio at once.

Trade mark owner vs brand operator

The registered proprietor is often an IP holding company that trades with nobody. The business you actually deal with is a separate company licensed to use the mark, and an individual outlet may be a franchisee licensed again. Our profiles name which relationship applies.

Licensing and parent companies

Licensing is why a product can carry a famous name while being made and sold by a company with no other connection to it. Common in fashion, drinks and homeware — and it means the trade mark owner and the manufacturer are both accurate answers to different questions.

Browse trade mark ownership guides

Registered rights are not the whole picture. Unregistered rights exist in the UK, so an empty register search does not mean a name is free to use — and international registrations designating the UK sit partly on WIPO’s records rather than the domestic register alone.

UK Trade Mark Owner Search