Building a Trade Mark Portfolio

July 16, 2019

Challenge

Codemakers is a digital consultancy and web development team based in Derby. Founded in 2008 by Managing Director Antony Stevenson and Creative Director Chris Ison, the business creates bespoke website applications and mobile apps and has worked with companies including Wowcher and the RAF Museum.

As a business that prides itself on innovation, Codemakers recently developed SHIPMATE, a new piece of e-commerce software built for the package delivery industry. SHIPMATE essentially brings together the various platforms involved in the logistics ecosystem and integrates them as one. Designed to simplify the entire process from placing an order to taking delivery, a user will enter a proposed delivery and the system will itself select the most efficient, fastest and cheapest delivery method, contact an appropriate courier (who will have already signed up as a partner) to arrange the delivery, and print a label containing the necessary information. All of this is done in a fraction of a second.

SHIPMATE was seen as integral to Codemakers’ future success. Having invested so much in creating the software, the team decided they would like to secure trade mark rights to protect the brand of the product they were now trying to develop. Codemakers was taking a proactive approach to intellectual property rights.

Our Work

Chris approached Swindell & Pearson and enquired about the initial costs and timeframes for obtaining trade mark protection for not only the SHIPMATE brand but also potentially for the CODEMAKERS logo as well. Both Chris and Antony had a limited understanding of IP rights and so were looking for a firm that was approachable and would take the time to understand their needs and requirements.

Swindell & Pearson arranged for an initial consultation with the team to explain the steps required in obtaining trade mark protection. It was important that time was spent to understand more about the SHIPMATE brand and Codemakers’ business aims. In particular, it was important to clearly understand what the team were seeking to protect, where they wanted to protect it and why they wanted to protect it. Knowing the answer to these questions would allow for Swindell & Pearson to work closely with Chris and the team to ensure that IP rights provide genuine commercial value to the business.

Swindell & Pearson filed one trade mark application which covers variations of the mark, SHIPMATE, giving Codemakers the relevant protection that the business sought. Within three months the rights were successfully registered and the team had succeeded in protecting the name of their valuable new software.

Impressed by the levels of service provided and Swindell & Pearson’s ability to explain and make clear the benefits of IP rights, Chris and the team decided that it would be of benefit to also protect the CODEMAKERS logo. Swindell & Pearson worked with the team to obtain registered trade mark protection for the logo.

Success

Codemakers originally set out to obtain trade mark protection for its in-house developed product SHIPMATE which is seen as being key to the business’s future success. The team recognised that securing the trade mark rights could help in a number of ways such as stopping actual competitors from using similar branding for similar business operations. Codemakers has protected its business interests within its market giving the team peace of mind for the future.

With Swindell & Pearson’s help, Codemakers not only obtained protection for the SHIPMATE name but also its own logo to protect the brand that had been carefully built up. Recognising the benefits of IP rights and trade marks in particular, Chris felt that obtaining trade mark rights was a valuable investment for the future growth of the business.