An expert has outlined why it's important to trademark brands as early as possible in the wake of an acclaimed Greater Manchester pasta restaurant was forced to change its name.
Sugo Pasta Kitchen in Altrincham recently rebranded to Sud Pasta following a years-old row over the use of the name Sugo with a Glasgow restaurant called Sugo Pasta.
The two got into a public social media spat over it in 2019, when customers thinking they were buying online vouchers for the Glasgow restaurant accidentally bought vouchers for the Manchester spot.
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Brothers Michael and Alex de Martiis started their business in 2015, but the Glasgow restaurant applied to trademark the name Sugo in 2017.
In the wake of the news this week Rory O'Hare, corporate and commercial partner at Primas Law, said: "My advice to anyone with a new business proposition is to think about trademarking your brand as early as possible, and ideally before you go to market.
"A trademark registration is a relatively inexpensive first step, although spending some time checking for potential conflicts, both within the UK and beyond (if you have global ambitions) is a worthwhile investment, and certainly cheaper than a forced rebrand.
"A registered trademark provides the owner with a right, protected by law, to prevent others from using an identical or very similar name in the same industry.
"The UK has a 'first to file' rule, meaning priority is given to the date of registration rather than first use.
"For example, if had Sugo Pasta Kitchen registered their brand as a trademark when they started back in 2015, they could have avoided this entire situation.
"They aren't the first business to suffer this fate and sadly won't be the last, but many businesses )including Google, Pepsi and Nike) have had to rebrand before becoming global household names, and we wish Sud Pasta every future success."
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