Trademarks, registered designs and copyright protect three different things, and most brands need more than one. A trademark protects the parts of your brand that tell customers a product is yours: the name, the logo, sometimes a slogan. A registered design protects how a product looks: its shape, its pattern, its decoration. Copyright protects original work you create: writing, artwork, photography, music and code. Patents are a fourth right, covering how an invention works, and sit outside this guide.
Pick the wrong one and the thing you care about stays exposed. Register your logo as a trademark and a rival can still copy the distinctive shape of your product. Lean on copyright for your brand name and you have no protection at all, because names are too short to attract copyright. Here is what each right covers, what it costs in 2026, and how to work out which you need.
The three rights at a glance
| Right | Protects | How you get it | Cost (2026) | How long it lasts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trademark | Brand identifiers: names, logos, slogans | Register with the UK IPO, in classes | £205 first class, £60 each extra | 10 years, renewable for ever |
| Registered design | A product’s appearance: shape, pattern, decoration | Register with the UK IPO | From £60 for one design online | Up to 25 years (renew every 5) |
| Copyright | Original creative works: writing, art, music, photos, code | Automatic on creation, no registration | Free | Author’s life plus 70 years |
Fees are taken from GOV.UK and reflect the rates from 1 April 2026.
Trademark: protects your name and logo
A trademark protects a sign that distinguishes your goods or services from everyone else’s. In practice that means your business name, your product names, your logo, and sometimes a slogan, a colour or a sound. It is the right that lets you stop a competitor trading under a confusingly similar name in your field.
You register it with the UK Intellectual Property Office in one or more of the 45 trademark classes, each covering a type of product or service. Protection lasts ten years and you can renew it indefinitely, so a trademark can outlive every other right on this page. What it will not do is protect the look of your product or the content you publish. For the full process, see how to register a trademark in the UK, and for whether it’s worth it at all, should I trademark my business name.
Registered design: protects how a product looks
A registered design protects the appearance of a product: its shape, configuration, surface pattern, colours and ornamentation. Think of the silhouette of a chair, the cut of a dress, the pattern on a fabric, or the layout of a packaging label. It protects the look, not the name on it and not how it functions.
You register it with the UK IPO, and at £60 for a single design filed online it is far cheaper than a trademark. It lasts up to 25 years, renewed every five years. There is also an automatic, unregistered design right in the UK, but it is shorter, weaker and harder to enforce, so registering matters if the design is central to your product.
One catch worth knowing: a registered design has to be new. Publish or sell the product first and you may destroy your own ability to register it, although the UK gives you a 12-month grace period from your own first disclosure. File before you go public where you can.
Copyright: protects what you create
Copyright protects original creative works: articles and books, artwork and illustrations, photographs, music, films and software code. It is the only right here that you do not apply for. It arises automatically the moment the work is fixed, it is free, and the UK has no register. The © symbol, your name and a year are optional and add no legal weight beyond putting others on notice.
For most written, visual and musical works copyright lasts the author’s life plus 70 years, far longer than any brand right. What copyright will not cover is just as important: it does not protect names, titles, slogans or single words (too short), and it does not protect ideas or functional features, only the specific expression of them. So your website copy and product photos are covered the instant you make them, but your brand name is not.
Which one do you actually need?
Match the right to the thing you are trying to protect:
- Your business or product name, or your logo as a brand sign: register a trademark.
- The distinctive look or shape of a product you sell: register a design.
- Content you produce: writing, artwork, photos, music, code: you already hold copyright, automatically.
- A genuinely new way something works: look into a patent (a separate, more involved process).
Plenty of businesses need two or three at once. A homeware brand might register its name as a trademark, register the design of its signature lamp, and rely on automatic copyright in its packaging artwork and website. The rights stack rather than compete, and the cheapest one (copyright) is the one you never have to ask for.
Whichever mix you need, the cheapest mistake to avoid is filing on a name that is already taken, because the IPO fee is not refunded if your trademark is refused. Before you spend on any application, check the name is free.