What are unregistered trade marks?
Unregistered trade mark rights arise over marks as you use them in your business. If someone else is using the same mark when you begin to use yours – a mark that they have not registered as a trade mark – you risk a passing off action by them. If they do not find out about you for a number of years, then depending on the facts – such as how long they had been using their mark before you began to build up rights over the same mark – you may end up in an expensive dispute with an undesirable outcome. The best you could hope for is that each of you would be allowed to continue to have limited rights to the mark within a specific geographical area or similar restriction.
