What is in the Trade Marks Journal
- UK applications and international registrations (the Madrid system) that designate the UK. Issue 2026/042 of 16 October 2026 had 3,641 marks: 3,078 UK applications and 563 international registrations.
- For each mark: the mark, its classes and goods, the applicant and their representative.
- The journal is open data, published under the Open Government Licence.
How long you have to oppose
- 2 months from the date the mark is published in the journal. The IPO’s example: a mark published on 11 April can be opposed until 11 June.
- For a third month, file form TM7a, “Notice of threatened opposition”, online within the 2 months. There is no fee. It does not commit you to opposing, but the IPO asks you to file it only if you are seriously considering an opposition.
- To oppose, file form TM7, “Notice of opposition”, with the fee.
- The IPO advises writing to the applicant first: if you oppose without warning and the applicant does not defend, you will normally not be awarded costs.
Source: UK IPO, Objecting to other people’s trade marks and the legal costs, checked 23 October 2026.
How our UK trade mark watch works
- We read every journal as it comes out — every entry, UK and international.
- Each mark is compared with yours: the same words, sound-alikes, near spellings, your mark inside a longer one, in the classes you sell in.
- For each match you see the reason, the classes, the owner and the last day of the 2 months — and that a TM7a can add a third.
- UK only, or the US too: the check covers both.
“Trade mark” or “trademark”?
The UK IPO writes “trade mark”, the USPTO “trademark”: the same thing.
The UK and the EU
Since 1 January 2021 an EU trade mark no longer covers the UK. UK marks are filed and opposed at the UK IPO, so a watch of EU filings misses them.