UK Intellectual Property Law Explained

If you've created something, you likely own intellectual property rights in it. A song, a logo, a product design, a business method, a customer database. UK law gives you tools to protect these assets and stop others from copying them. This guide covers what's protectable, how protection works, and what you can do if someone infringes.

The short version

Intellectual property (IP) is ownership of ideas, creative works, and innovations. The UK recognises five main types: copyright (automatic, applies to literature, music, film, code), trade marks (registered logos and brand names), patents (registered inventions), designs (registered and unregistered visual features), and trade secrets (confidential information). Each has different rules for registration, duration, and enforcement. You can stop infringement through negotiation, mediation, or courts. Small claims are handled by the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (IPEC).

At a glance

Copyright

Copyright is automatic. The moment you create a literary, dramatic, musical, artistic work, software, sound recording, film, or broadcast, you own the copyright. You don't have to register, mark it with the copyright symbol, or do anything else. It simply exists.

What copyright protects: The right to copy the work, issue copies to the public, rent it, lend it, perform it in public, broadcast it, and make adaptations. If someone reproduces your work (or a substantial part) without permission, that's infringement.

Duration: Life of the author plus 70 years. For films, it's 70 years from the death of the last of the director, authors of the screenplay and dialogue, and composer of film music. For works made for hire or anonymous works, 70 years from creation. Sound recordings and broadcasts are 50 years.

What it doesn't protect: Ideas, concepts, procedures, methods of operation, mathematical principles, or facts. Copyright protects the expression, not the underlying idea. So if you write a novel about a woman discovering her estranged father, others can write similar novels. They can't copy your actual text.

Infringement remedies: You can demand the infringing party stop, destroy infringing copies, pay damages (lost sales or a reasonable licence fee), or agree to an account of profits (hand over all money they made from your work). If they refuse, you can sue.

Trade marks

A trade mark is a sign (a word, logo, shape, colour, or sound) that identifies your goods or services and distinguishes them from competitors. You register trade marks at the UK Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO).

Registration process: You apply to UKIPO with a description of your mark and the goods or services it covers (arranged in 45 classes, e.g. Class 25 = clothing, Class 41 = education). UKIPO checks whether your mark is distinctive, not offensive, and not already registered. Other businesses can oppose your application within a set period. If approved, you have a trade mark.

Duration: 10 years from registration. You can renew indefinitely for another 10 years. If you don't use it for five consecutive years, someone can apply to remove it.

Infringement: Someone infringes if they use an identical or confusingly similar mark on identical or similar goods without permission. You can sue for a court order stopping the infringement and damages.

Opposition: If someone applies to register a mark that conflicts with yours, you can file an opposition (usually within 4-6 weeks of publication) arguing you have a prior right. UKIPO will decide.

Patents

A patent is a right to an invention. It gives you a monopoly on making, using, or selling that invention for 20 years. Patents are governed by the Patents Act 1977 and are registered through UKIPO.

What's patentable: An invention must be new (not publicly disclosed anywhere in the world before your filing date), involve an inventive step (not obvious to someone skilled in the field), and be capable of industrial application. Methods of business, pure scientific discoveries, and artistic works are not patentable.

Registration process: You file a patent application with UKIPO, which includes a description of the invention, claims (what you claim to own), and drawings. UKIPO searches existing patents and literature to check novelty. You can file for a 12-month grace period abroad. Full examination typically takes 4-6 years. Once granted, your invention is protected.

Cost and complexity: Patents are expensive (filing, searches, professional advice, examination, renewal fees). A simple patent can cost GBP 5,000+. A contested one can reach GBP 50,000+. For this reason, many small businesses use trade secrets instead.

Enforcement: If someone manufactures or sells your patented invention without a licence, that's infringement. You can sue for damages and an injunction stopping them.

Registered and unregistered designs

A design is the visual appearance of a product: its shape, pattern, colour, texture, or ornament.

Registered designs: You can register a design at UKIPO. It covers the appearance of a product and its components. Registration lasts 5 years and is renewable up to 25 years total. You can register up to 100 designs in a single application. Registered designs are good for protecting product looks when you want clear legal certainty.

Unregistered designs: If you don't register, you still own an unregistered design right in products you create. This is automatic. But unregistered protection is weaker: it lasts only 10 years and only prevents copying (not independent creation). If someone designs the same look without seeing yours, you can't sue.

Infringement: Copying a registered design (or making articles substantially to the same design) is infringement. For unregistered designs, you must prove copying, not just similarity.

Trade secrets and confidentiality

A trade secret is confidential business information (a recipe, a formula, a customer list, a manufacturing process, code) that gives you a competitive advantage. Protection is automatic but depends on keeping it secret.

How they're protected: Trade secret protection comes from common law confidentiality duties and the Trade Secrets Regulations 2018 (which implements an EU directive). If you disclose a trade secret under a confidentiality agreement or in circumstances where the recipient knows it's confidential, you can sue if they disclose it to others or use it.

Duration: Indefinite, as long as you keep it secret. Once it's public, it's no longer a trade secret.

Practical use: To protect a trade secret, you must:

• Keep the information genuinely secret (few people know about it).
• Make reasonable efforts to maintain secrecy (confidentiality agreements, restricted access, passwords).
• Treat it as confidential internally.

If someone misappropriates your trade secret, you can sue for damages and an injunction. You can also report trade secret theft to police as a criminal offence under the 2018 Regulations.

Trade secrets vs patents: Patents are public (you disclose the invention) but get a 20-year monopoly. Trade secrets are private but only last if you keep them secret. Some businesses use both: patent the core innovation and keep the implementation secret.

How to enforce IP rights

Step 1: Cease and desist letter. Send a formal letter (often through a solicitor) setting out what IP you own, how they're infringing, and what you want them to do (stop, pay damages, destroy copies, etc.). Many disputes end here without court.

Step 2: Mediation. If the infringer disputes your claim or ignores the letter, propose mediation (a neutral third party helps both sides negotiate). It's faster and cheaper than court.

Step 3: Pre-action protocol. Before suing, you must usually follow the Pre-Action Protocol for Intellectual Property Claims. You exchange evidence, make formal offers to settle, and give the other side a chance to respond. Courts expect you to follow this.

Step 4: Court action. If negotiation fails, you sue in court. For smaller claims (up to GBP 100,000), you can use IPEC small claims track. For larger ones, you go to the full court.

Intellectual Property Enterprise Court (IPEC) and small claims track

The IPEC is part of the Business and Property Courts (under the Senior Courts of England and Wales) and specialises in IP disputes. It has two tracks.

IPEC small claims track: For claims up to GBP 100,000 (or GBP 5,000 for infringement of unregistered design right or breach of confidence by an SME against another SME). Fast, informal, and cheaper than the full court. The aim is to resolve claims within 9 months. You can represent yourself or have a lawyer, but costs are capped so you won't face a huge bill if you lose. Ideal for small businesses and creators.

IPEC multi-track: For claims above the small claims limit. More formal and rigid, but still faster than the Court of Appeal.

Advantages: Specialist IP judges, faster timescales, proportionate costs, ability to get injunctions (court orders) stopping an infringement quickly.

Procedure: You issue a claim form at court, serve the defendant, they respond, you exchange evidence and witness statements, and then there's a hearing (often just one day). The judge decides.

Damages and account of profits

If you win an IP case, you're entitled to a remedy.

Damages: Compensation for loss caused by infringement. This could be lost sales (if you lost customers because of the infringement), the cost of correcting damage to your reputation, or a reasonable licence fee (what the infringer would have paid for permission to use your IP). The court assesses this based on evidence of your actual loss.

Account of profits: Instead of damages, you can ask the court to order the infringer to hand over all profits they made from the infringement. If a counterfeit handbag sold for GBP 500 and they made GBP 100 profit per item, you get the GBP 100 per item sold. This is useful if the infringer made a lot of money.

Injunctions: The court can order an injunction stopping the infringement immediately and keeping it stopped. This is often more valuable than money because it stops the harm.

Delivery up: The court can order the infringement to hand over or destroy infringing articles.

Common misconceptions

Myth: You have to register copyright. False. Copyright is automatic the moment you create the work. Registering with a solicitor or publisher is optional and doesn't give you extra rights (though it can help prove creation date).

Myth: You have to use the copyright symbol. False. The symbol is optional and doesn't change your rights. You own copyright whether or not you mark it.

Myth: If it's on the internet, it's not copyright-protected. False. Copyright applies to everything: websites, photos, videos, blog posts, social media. Putting something online doesn't waive copyright or make it free to copy.

Myth: A patent lasts forever. False. A patent lasts 20 years from filing. After that, anyone can use the invention freely.

Myth: If someone says "no infringement intended," they're not liable. False. Intent doesn't matter. If they copy without permission, it's infringement regardless of their intention.

Myth: Using 10 percent of a work makes it original. False. Copyright protects any substantial part. Even copying 5 percent can be infringement if that part is a significant or recognisable portion.

Myth: Trade mark registration is permanent and never expires. False. Trade marks last 10 years and must be renewed. If you don't renew, you lose the right.

Related concepts

• Passing off: A common law tort (legal wrong) where you mislead customers into thinking your goods are someone else's. Similar to trade mark infringement but doesn't require registration.
• Moral rights: Separate from copyright; they give authors the right to be identified as the creator and to object to derogatory treatment of their work.
• Database right: Protects databases as a whole even if the contents are not copyright-protected. Lasts 15 years from creation.
• Performer's rights: Protects live performances of copyright works. Prevents unauthorised recording or broadcast.
• Crown use: The government can use a patent without permission but must pay reasonable compensation.
• Exhaustion of rights: Once a product is sold, the buyer can resell it without the IP owner's permission (though making new copies is still infringement).
• Parallel imports: Goods manufactured abroad under licence and then imported into the UK. The status of parallel imports in UK law changed after Brexit; current rules apply a modified exhaustion doctrine.
• Fair dealing: Copyright owners can't stop people from using works for criticism, reporting, parody, private study, or research (subject to limits). This is a defence to infringement.
• Orphan works: Works where the copyright owner can't be found. There are exceptions and licensing schemes for limited uses.
• IP indemnity: A contractual promise that you own the IP and will compensate the other party if someone sues them for infringement.

Sources

• UK Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO): https://www.ipo.gov.uk
• UK Government, Intellectual Property: An overview: https://www.gov.uk/intellectual-property-an-overview
• Judiciary of England and Wales, Business and Property Courts: https://www.judiciary.uk/courts-and-tribunals/business-and-property-courts
• Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (as amended)
• Trade Marks Act 1994 (as amended)
• Patents Act 1977 (as amended)

This page provides general information about UK intellectual property law. It is not legal advice. For advice on your specific situation, consult a qualified solicitor or barrister.

Written by Peter Kolomiets, founder of CaseCalm. UK content reviewed 2026-05-28.