Charities
Past and present clients of Abel & Imray’s Trade Marks Team in the charity sector or otherwise having charitable status include the Royal Society of Arts, The National Gardens Scheme, Tiggywinkles Wildlife Hospital, the Planet Earth Institute and Action on Disability and Development.
Many of those organisations operate internationally and have an interest in protecting their brands in a variety of territories, some of which are well outside of the typical areas of interest to commercial clients.
Having charitable status can have its advantages, but does not in our experience lessen the importance of attaining brand identity and the legal freedom to use a given trade mark or charity name. Issues such as securing registered trade mark rights to protect the value in a house brand or trading name and avoiding infringing the trade mark rights of others can therefore be just as relevant to undertakings with charitable status as they are to other companies.
Cost is often an issue for clients, as is getting proper value for money, but perhaps such issues are even more of an issue for charitable organisations. Our trade mark professionals are sensitive to the need to obtain effective trade mark protection for charities in key jurisdictions, whilst keeping a tight rein on expenditure and spending money wisely.