Your brand is the part of your business that communicates to the outside world who you are, the quality of your goods and services, and your company’s image. Therefore, it is an important and valuable asset. One way of protecting your brand is through registering it as a trademark.

The rise of brands converging across various industries has meant that trademark lawyers have to monitor changes in the law more than ever.

At Sheridans, our trademark specialists advise a number of individuals, brands and agencies in innovative projects across all leisure, media, and entertainment.

We provide a one-stop-shop from brand genesis through to brand development, exploitation and protection and provide cost-effective advice on trademarks, filing strategy and brand development.

Our clients receive relevant, focused advice for reaching their business goals.

In this article, we provide some “top tips” for the use of trademarks to protect your business.

1. Why register?

Trademarks are a valuabl...

The ultimate goal for any business is to generate sales that will fuel the company's growth and generate profit. For most fashion brands, sales largely depend on having a great product that sells in volume. While one can argue that the success of a product depends on the style and what the demand is for it, another largely undervalued aspect is the quality of the product. A great product poorly executed will not sell in any notable volume.

To ensure a well executed and manufactured product, it is the designer's responsibility to provide the correct final sample and supporting documents like a spec pack to the factory. Setting the right expectations and choosing the right factory for your product is preparing for manufacturing success.

Making a perfect garment sample good enough for the factory to follow through to production, can be approached in three ways.

Whichever way you choose, your final outcome is to produce items to a very high standard so that they can be used by a factory...

Many fashion brand owners and entrepreneurs I speak to often complain about lack of sales and ask "how do you increase sales for your fashion brand"? They blame the economy, social media and everything under the sun. Their brands and businesses suffer, struggle and often close because of no sales. The reality is somewhat different. Never before have we had so many opportunities to sell our products. If you believe this and still not selling, the harsh truth is that you are simply not doing enough to bring the sales home.

Now there are many reasons why you may not sell a product. It could be that the product price is wrong or the product/market fit is not good.

It could be that your brand marketing communication is lacklustre and not clear enough who you are communicating to.

While we see this daily and help many entrepreneurs get back on track, the act of selling products is really a numbers game.

There is no magic formula.

How much you sell and how you sell really depends on yo

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A fashion Lookbook is a catalogue of well-styled images that convey the essence of your brand through creative storytelling.

Creating your fashion Lookbook should be a natural occurrence for a creative. Wanting to tell your story and market your products to the public is all part of building your brand.

Brand building is all about weaving stories to engage your audience.

In the highly visual world of fashion, how you communicate your design ideas is extremely important.

Once you have perfected the design process, product development and sample making, your marketing should begin in earnest. There are many eye-catching ways to entice buyers, press and customers but the most effective is a Lookbook.

With this fashion catalogue of well-styled images, you will be in a better position to sell yourself in a professional manner. The lookbook conveys the essence of your brand through creative storytelling and works in a multi-functional way. It shows your products on models, in a stylised...