Register a trade mark for a gardening service

A gardening business can secure its business name just as easily

Yes, a gardening business can have its business name or logo registered as a trademark, for example as a Benelux trademark via the BOIP or as a Union trademark via the EUIPO. The fact that a business has been operating under a particular name for years, has had brochures printed or has had a van lettered does not in itself confer any right to that name. Without registration, someone else can secure the same or a very similar name, and that person can subsequently ask the gardening business to stop using it. For a local business, this may seem unlikely, but naming in the gardening industry is often generic enough — think of combinations with 'garden', 'green' or a place name — that overlap with another entrepreneur is certainly not inconceivable.

The application also requires choosing the correct classes within the Nice Classification: a gardening business's services fall under different descriptions than, for example, the sale of plants or garden materials, and anyone who applies for the wrong class will still not be protected for that other activity. A conflict search against the public registers gives an indication in advance of whether anything similar has already been registered, but this is an indication and no guarantee that an application will be approved — that assessment is up to the BOIP or EUIPO themselves.

What this is based on: the registers and the Nice Classification

The fact that a trademark is applied for via the BOIP for the Benelux or the EUIPO for the entire EU follows directly from the authority of these two offices as official trademark registers. Which classes belong to a gardening business is determined on the basis of the Nice Classification of the WIPO, the international system by which goods and services are categorised for trademark applications. The registers of the BOIP and the EUIPO are also the place to see whether a name has already been secured by someone else.