Yes, trademark protection applies to any business that commercially uses a name or logo, regardless of legal form. A freelancer or sole proprietor can file exactly the same trademark application as a limited company or public company, and trademark law has no threshold for turnover, staff, or business size. What matters is whether you use a sign to distinguish your products or services from those of others.
What does matter is who files the application and in whose name the registration is recorded. For a sole proprietorship, this is almost always the individual behind the business, because a sole proprietorship has no separate legal personality. This is not a disadvantage, but it is something to choose consciously, especially if you plan to set up a limited company later.
Why legal form does not matter
When examining an application, the national office and the EUIPO assess whether the sign has distinctive character and whether it too closely resembles an existing trademark. They do not ask about your annual turnover, the number of employees, or whether you operate as a limited company, partnership, or sole proprietorship. A small installation business with two staff faces exactly the same examination criteria as a national chain. The risk that someone else will claim your name is not smaller for a small business; in fact, smaller players often have less capacity to absorb a name change if something goes wrong.
This also means that the decision whether to register or not does not depend on whether your business is 'large enough'. It depends on how important the name is to you and what it costs you if someone else claims it. If you are unsure whether this risk applies to your situation, you can see where you stand in five questions without needing an account.
Who becomes the trademark holder if you are a freelancer
For a sole proprietorship, the trademark registration is usually in the name of the business owner themselves, not the business name. This is a deliberate choice in the system: a trademark is an intellectual property right that belongs to a legal entity or an individual, and a sole proprietorship is not a separate legal entity. For day-to-day purposes, this makes little difference, but it becomes relevant as soon as you sell, contribute, or transfer the business to a successor. Then the trademark must be explicitly transferred, with the proper documentation, otherwise it remains with the person while the business has already changed hands.
What if you later set up a limited company
Many freelancers and sole proprietors grow into a limited company. The trademark does not automatically come along; the transition from individual to legal entity is legally a transfer, even if it feels to you like the same business simply changing form. If you know this in advance, you can account for it when setting up the limited company rather than discovering afterwards that the trademark holder is still the old sole proprietorship. For the steps involved, it is advisable to clarify which steps are necessary for your situation or to consult a legal professional for the transfer itself.
Classes and costs are not lower for a small business
A misconception we often encounter: the idea that a small business could get by with fewer classes or a lighter procedure because the business is small. That is not the case. The Nice Classification and the fees of the BOIP or EUIPO are linked to the classes you choose, not to your business size. A sole proprietor who needs three classes pays the same fees as a limited company with the same three classes. However, for a smaller business it is often even more important not to choose too many classes that you do not actually use, simply because each additional class costs money that you could deploy elsewhere. An overview of what the service fee and the fees together mean, is shown on the service fee and the fees side by side.
When it is different
There are situations in which the question becomes more nuanced than a simple yes. If you work with a partner without a partnership agreement, it is not always self-evident who acts as the trade mark holder. If you use a name that you share with a franchisor or a cooperative arrangement, the question arises of who may register the trade mark and who gets the right of use. And in the case of a sole proprietor who actually operates two separate business activities under one name, it may be wise to think in advance about which classes belong to which activity. For that type of question, the answer cannot be captured in two paragraphs and a lawyer or trade mark attorney is the right point of contact; we also transfer that type of file as soon as it falls outside guided self-filing.
If you have doubts as to whether your situation as a self-employed person or sole proprietor requires registration, the free trade mark check is the fastest way to gain clarity on this, and the answers to practical questions about registration provide a good picture of what is involved in practice.