Registered vs. unregistered brand

This video was made with AI-generated visuals and narration.

You can own a trademark you never registered.

In Denmark, steady use of a name can create a trademark right on its own. No application, no fee. But there are two catches.

Catch one: the threshold

The use has to reach beyond a local area. A café everyone in town knows can still fall short of it. Where exactly the line goes depends on the case, which is part of the problem: you may only find out where you stand when someone challenges you.

Catch two: nobody can see it

An unregistered right isn't in any register. When another company searches before choosing its name, yours doesn't show up.

So you may find each other later, after the logo, the packaging and the first campaigns are paid for. On both sides.

What a registration adds

A registration is public from the day you apply. Anyone who checks before choosing a name can see that yours is claimed, before they spend money on it.

The difference that matters most in practice is visibility. Others can find a registration in time.

Two questions for your own names

Which of your names would show up if someone searched the register today?

Has any of them grown beyond the town or region where it started?

Sources

Danish Trademark Act (varemærkeloven), sections 3 and 17: https://www.retsinformation.dk/eli/lta/2019/88

General information, not legal advice. Write to jeppe@legaly.dk if you would like your own names checked.