Blue rosettes, red faces: Tory TM infringement

Have you ever received party political information which was formatted like a newspaper? I know I have - and also material which looked like it originated from the local council, although that's another story.

The Conservative Party is backpedalling swiftly after it used the registered trade mark of a regional news outlet on its campaign leaflets, with a fulsome apology for the infringement now published. This sort of faux pas can be very easily avoided by a simple trade mark clearance search. The moral of the tale: if you're using a brand, it's worth the cost of checking it doesn't already belong to someone else, before you start your marketing or promotional campaign. Even if you think you don't have the budget for a search, repairing damage after the event can work out much more expensive.