Owners of valuable trade marks will need to be quicker off the mark to oppose applications that infringe their trade marks  because of changes which took place on 1 October. The reason for this is that the UK Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) has reduced the time for making an opposition to an application from three months to two.

The change will permit quicker registrations for the vast majority of trade marks, ninety per cent of which are unopposed.

When a trade mark application is raised, the UKIPO will circulate any holders of similar marks, but this process cannot be regarded as infallible. In the absence of an opposition from an existing trade mark owner, the mark will be registered automatically at the expiry of the opposition period. If an opposition is raised, the applicant will have two months (previously six weeks) to raise a defence to the opposition and unless that is done, the application will be deemed to have been withdrawn.

If you have valuable trade marks to protect, it may well make sense to use a monitoring service to make sure you are aware of any application which may infringe your trade mark.