Navigating trade marks for influencers

Trade marks are an important asset for an influencer as they help to protect your most valuable assets – your reputation, online persona and brand. In this article, trade mark attorney, Natasha Walker, shares best trade mark practices for influencers.

What are trade marks and how can they help influencers?

Trade marks give exclusive rights to names and logos and are a vital means of protecting businesses and brands.

As an influencer, it is important to protect your assets so that you maintain complete control over your online presence and how your name, likeness and established brand is used.

The key benefit to having a registered trade mark is that it provides you with a right of monopoly over a mark indefinitely (assuming renewal fees are paid regularly – they tend to be due every 10 years).

Why register your brand?

The main reason to protect your brand is that a registered trade mark provides you with a tool to prevent third parties from copying and using your trade mark without your permission.

If you find a third-party infringer using your brand you can use your registered rights to force them to stop by issuing infringement proceedings. Starting court infringement proceedings is often the last resort and there are easier (and often quicker) routes to stopping the infringing activity within as little as 48 hours.

Online infringing behaviour can often be quickly resolved by filing IP Infringement Takedown Notices across social media platforms such as Instagram®, Facebook®, YouTube® and TikTok®. Having a registered right, such as a trade mark registration, allows the hosts of these platforms to assess the infringement much quicker and the desired outcome, the removal of the authorised or infringing content, can be achieved in as little as 24 hours.

Another huge benefit to having registered rights is the ability to easily monetise your brand. Having registered rights means that you can easily license your brand to other businesses. Trade marks can be licensed to other business and individuals for a payment (known as a royalty) and registered rights often attract higher royalty payments than unregistered rights do.

What should you protect?

A trade mark can protect any word, phrase, symbol, design, or combination thereof that can be used to identify the source of your goods and services.

When a trade mark application is filed, a well-defined list of items (goods) and services is submitted to ensure adequate protection is gained for the applicant.

From experience, most influencers start out by offering their services online which quickly develops into their own branded product offerings.

Services which are typically offered by influencers include personal blogs and websites, podcasts and vodcasts, creating and publishing videos on sites such as YouTube®, TikTok® and Instagram®, promotional content for others and personal appearances and other public speaking engagements.

Such services as the above can be protected via a trade mark application as can products which tend to be developed once an influencer is established such as cosmetics, clothing, jewellery and home goods.

Well known influencers who have registered their brands

There are many well-known social media influencers who have taken the step of protecting themselves and their brand with registering trade marks. Here are some renowned influencer examples below:

Mrs Hinch – Sophie Hinchcliffe

Sophie Hinchcliffe aka ‘Mrs Hinch’ burst onto our social media feeds in 2018 documenting her home renovation journey before wowing her followers with her tips and tricks to get our homes clean.

Her social media account and following grew rapidly between 2018 and 2020 and as of today she has amassed an impressive following of over 4.8m people on Instagram.

In early 2020, Sophie filed and successfully registered UK trade marks for MRS HINCH and HINCH for a broad range of goods and services. She has since gone on to protect both marks in Europe.

In recent years, Sophie has written a book and released her own home goods and cleaning ranges under the HINCH mark. We can only assume she licensed her HINCH mark to the major supermarket for her home goods range and the major cleaning company for her cleaning line which shows just how lucrative registered trade marks can be for influencers.

The Body Coach – Joe Wicks

Joe Wicks started his influencer journey in 2014 by posting short fitness videos, nutritional advice and healthy recipes to Instagram and YouTube.

His following really took off and by 2015 he was able to release his first book titled ‘Lean in 15’ followed by his own television show in 2016.

The earliest UK trade mark filing made by Joe Wicks was in March 2015 for THE BODY COACH which covered clothing and fitness equipment. In 2016, far broader applications were filed for the marks THE BODY COACH, JOE WICKS THE BODY COACH, LEAN IN 15, THE BODY COACH & JOE WICKS for a broad selection of goods and services.

As of today, Joe Wicks has a following of over 4.7m people on Instagram® and has monetised his following by using his registered trade marks in connection with goods and services such as books, fitness plans and water bottles.

Molly Mae Hague

The one and only Molly Mae Hague launched to star influencer status after becoming a runner-up in the fifth series of Love Island in 2019.

During her stint on Love Island, her Instagram following reportedly grew from 160,000 to over 3m followers during the 8-week period the show aired.

Prior to Love Island, Molly Mae was on the influencer scene but waited until post-Love Island to register any UK trade marks.

She is the registered proprietor of a broad range of marks including MOLLY-MAE, MOLLY MAE HAGUE, MMH, FILTER BY MOLLY-MAE which all cover cosmetics and cosmetic tools.

How can a trade mark attorney help?

We have considerable experience working with influencers and the unique IP challenges they face. We currently work with a number of acclaimed cosmetic and beauty influencers, protecting and enforcing their brands internationally, and helping them to successfully navigate the complex world of trade marks.