Before you register your trade mark you must decide which route to take

 There are a number of avenues through which a brand owner could obtain the monopoly afforded by a successful registration of a trade mark. This article will detail the main avenues that a prospective trade mark owner should be thinking about before they register their mark.

 Registration of a trade mark can be achieved by applying: directly to the UK; directly to the OHIM(for a Community Trade Mark); to a Paris Convention Country then to the UK, OHIM or an international registration designating the UK or OHIM; or an application to the OHIM followed by an international application.

 Ultimately, your decision in respect of which rout to take will be relative to the commercial scope of your business i.e if your business is trading only in the UK it is more cost effective to register in the UK. On the other hand if your business is trading in a number of counties in the EU, then it maybe advisable for you to file for a Community Trade Mark instead of filing for each individual country; this could also save on costs and give you protection across the EU.

 Another advantage to registering a Community Trade mark is that maintaining your mark will be easier, as only one renewal is required as opposed to separate renewals for each respective country.

The down-side to an application for a Community Mark as opposed to national mark is that there is likely to be a greater chance that you will face an opposition as there are a larger amount of community marks than national marks generally.