The notice tends to arrive just when an application seems safely through. The UK Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) examined your trademark, accepted it and published it, and then someone opposed it, or warned that they might. Registration goes on hold, and a timetable with hard deadlines starts running. This article maps the procedure stage by stage, with the current fees; for how to choose between fighting, negotiating and walking away, see our companion guide on responding to a trademark opposition.
Two facts take some heat out of the moment. An opposition is not a refusal. It begins a structured dispute before a tribunal inside the UKIPO, and the opponent has to make its case. And most oppositions never reach a decision. One IP firm’s analysis of UKIPO data found that around 75% of the oppositions closed in 2023 ended without the applicant ever filing a defence, the application having been withdrawn, the dispute settled or the case simply not contested; the same analysis counted roughly 7,800 oppositions begun that year. All official fees below are as at July 2026. UKIPO trademark fees rose in April 2026, their first increase since 1998, so figures quoted elsewhere may be older.
Publication opens a two-month window
Opposition exists because the UKIPO leaves earlier rights owners to police the register. Since October 2007 it has not refused applications merely because an earlier similar mark exists: examiners tell you what their searches find and, when your application is published, notify the owners of any earlier UK marks they identified. Nobody is refused anything at that point; opposition is how an owner objects.
Publication in the Trade Marks Journal, online every Friday, opens a two-month window for oppositions. A would-be opponent who wants longer files form TM7A, a notice of threatened opposition, before that window closes. The TM7A is free, extends the deadline to three months for that filer alone, and commits them to nothing; it cannot be extended again. It usually means a letter is coming, inviting you to withdraw the application or narrow it. Opponents have a financial reason to write before they fight: one who opposes without ever having contacted you risks being awarded no costs if you promptly withdraw.
The TM7: grounds, fees and the fast track
A formal opposition starts with form TM7, which states who is opposing, which goods and services are attacked (the whole application or only part of it) and on what grounds.
Grounds fall into two families under the Trade Marks Act 1994. Relative grounds, under section 5, rest on earlier rights: an identical mark for identical goods, a similar mark creating a likelihood of confusion, a reputation your mark would take unfair advantage of or damage, or earlier unregistered rights such as goodwill protected by the law of passing off, copyright or designs. Absolute grounds, under section 3, go to the mark itself, as devoid of distinctive character, exclusively descriptive, customary in the trade, or applied for in bad faith. The fee follows the grounds: £125 where the opponent relies only on sections 5(1) and 5(2), the identical-or-confusingly-similar grounds, and £250 where any other ground joins in.
For the simplest disputes there is a fast track. Form TM7F, also £125, is available where the grounds are limited to sections 5(1) and 5(2) and the opponent relies on no more than three earlier registered marks, all its own. The work is front-loaded: for any earlier mark that has been registered for five years or more, proof of use must be filed with the notice itself, and further evidence is allowed only exceptionally. Fast track cases are normally decided from the papers, costs are capped at £600 absent unreasonable behaviour, and the UKIPO puts the average time from filing to decision at three months.
Two months to file your defence
Once the TM7 is served on you, the clock that matters most begins. You have two months from notification to file form TM8, the counterstatement: your formal defence, admitting or denying each of the opponent’s claims. This is the hardest deadline in the whole procedure. It cannot be extended, with the single exception described next, and missing it has an automatic consequence: the application is treated as abandoned for the contested goods and services unless the registrar directs otherwise (rule 18(2) of the Trade Marks Rules 2008). Where the opposition covers everything you applied for, that is the end of the application; where it is aimed at only part, the loss is confined to that part.
Cooling-off: built-in room to settle
The procedure assumes that talking is often cheaper than fighting, and makes time for it. If both sides agree, form TM9C, free and filed within the TM8 period, suspends the case and moves the counterstatement deadline to nine months from notification. A further joint request on form TM9E, with both parties confirming that genuine settlement negotiations are under way, takes it to eighteen months at most. Either side can end the truce, for instance, the opponent by filing form TM9T, which leaves you at least a month to file the TM8 or you, at any point, by filing the TM8 itself.
The time is there for the deals that dispose of disputes restricting your goods and services, which you may do at any time; agreeing terms on which both marks can coexist or obtaining the earlier owner’s consent, which the Act treats as clearing the objection altogether. The UKIPO’s mediation service also covers oppositions, with online mediation from £75 per party.
Evidence, and proof of use for older marks
If the TM8 goes in and no settlement follows, the tribunal sets an evidence timetable. Evidence takes the form of witness statements, in sequential rounds, the opponent, then you, then the opponent in reply. What it contains depends on the grounds, sales and advertising material to establish a reputation, for instance.
One rule deserves singling out. Where the earlier mark completed its registration five years or more before your application’s filing date (or priority date, if you claimed one), section 6A puts its owner to proof. Genuine use of the mark in the UK in the past five years, or proper reasons for non-use, for the goods and services relied on. To whatever extent the opponent cannot show this, the opposition is treated as withdrawn. Marks sitting unused on the register are weaker weapons than their owners assume.
Decision, costs and appeal
When evidence closes, either party may ask for a hearing; if neither does, the tribunal decides from the papers. A written decision follows either way.
The decision also awards costs, and this part is gentler than many applicants fear. Awards follow a published scale (Tribunal Practice Notice 1/2023) and are a contribution towards expenses rather than full recovery: £250 to £750 for preparing statements, £600 to £2,600 for an evidence round, up to £1,900 a day for preparing and attending a hearing capped at £3,900, and £350 to £650 for written submissions in lieu of one, plus official fees. Unreasonable behaviour can push an award off the scale, and a winning party without professional representation recovers its official fees in full but only half the scale amounts. The scale cuts both ways, the loser rarely pays the winner’s real bill, and the winner rarely recovers its own.
Appeals run on a 28-day clock, by two routes. One from the Appointed Person, on form TM55P for £300, whose decision is final with no onward appeal, although points of general importance can be referred to the court or to the court itself directly.
Deadlines first, strategy second
Laid end to end, the procedure is less alarming than the first notice suggests. The stages are fixed, the official fees are modest, costs awards are capped contributions, and most cases end early, by agreement or withdrawal. What forgives nothing is the calendar: the opposition window shuts when it shuts, the TM8 deadline moves only through cooling-off, and appeal rights lapse after 28 days. So the usual first steps are mundane. Applicants commonly diarise the counterstatement deadline at once, read the grounds to see precisely which goods and services are opposed, and take honest stock of what the application is worth before spending anything on defending it. Whether then to defend, negotiate or let go, and how to do each well, is the subject of our guide on responding to a trademark opposition.
ScalaxIP supports businesses through UK trademark oppositions, from a first TM7A warning to settlement or a defended case. If a notice has arrived, get in touch and we will help you make sense of the timetable and the forms.
Disclaimer: This article is provided for general information only and does not constitute legal advice. For advice on your specific circumstances, please contact ScalaxIP at admin@scalaxip.com
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