According to the Patent Office, 55% of the entrepreneurs surveyed believe that they have protected their name enough, 44% think that they do not have enough protection, and the remainder do not know.
Many mistakenly believe that registering their name at Companies House alone is sufficient to protect the firm name.
"It is essential to protect the name that you trade under as a registered trade mark. This gives you exclusive rights to use that name in your business area,” said Lawrence Smith-Higgins, head of Awareness Information and Media at the Patent Office.
“Companies are potentially putting themselves at risk of legal action from another company if they haven’t checked whether their name already belongs to someone else. It’s not a risk worth taking," he warned.
The research was carried out as part of the "What is the Key?" campaign, launched by the Patent Office, The Chartered Institute of Patent Agents and the Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys in June last year in an effort to encourage business owners to profit from their IP assets.
