Trade marks · 6 min read · 21 September 2026

I have received a TM7 opposition against my UK trade mark. What now?

Your application was published, and within the two month window someone filed a Form TM7 opposing it. The UKIPO has written to you with a notification date. From that date you have two months. In that time you must either file a Form TM8 with a counterstatement, or agree a cooling off period with the opponent on Form TM9c. Do neither and the application is treated as abandoned for everything the opposition covers. That is the whole of the law on the deadline, and it is unforgiving.

What the TM7 actually is

A TM7 is a notice of opposition with a statement of grounds, filed under rule 17 of the Trade Marks Rules 2008 within two months of your application being published (three months if the opponent filed a TM7A to reserve extra time). The grounds are almost always relative: the opponent says it owns an earlier mark and yours is identical or confusingly similar for the same or similar goods, under section 5(1) or 5(2) of the Trade Marks Act 1994. Some add section 5(3), reputation, or section 5(4)(a), passing off. A minority run absolute grounds under section 3, that the mark is descriptive or was applied for in bad faith.

Read the statement of grounds before anything else. It tells you which of your goods and services are attacked, which earlier marks are relied on, and on what basis. Oppositions are often narrower than the covering letter makes them feel. An opponent relying on one class against a five class application has left four classes untouched, and a partial opposition can be resolved by a partial concession without losing the rest.

The two month deadline, and what counts as meeting it

Rule 18(3) sets the relevant period at two months beginning immediately after the notification date. Two things satisfy it. The first is a Form TM8 including a counterstatement, which carries no official fee. The second is a Form TM9c requesting the cooling off period, which either party can file but only if both agree to it. Anything else, including a letter to the opponent, a call to the UKIPO or an email saying you intend to defend, does not stop the clock.

Rule 18(2) states the consequence: where no TM8 or counterstatement is filed within the relevant period, the application is treated as abandoned in respect of the goods and services the opposition is directed at, unless the registrar directs otherwise. The registrar rarely does. If you miss the date you are asking for an indulgence, not exercising a right.

Cooling off: buying time to settle, on the record

If there is a realistic prospect of agreement, the cooling off period is the sensible first move. A TM9c filed inside the two months, with the opponent's consent, gives the parties nine months from the notification date to negotiate. A further joint request on Form TM9e, which must confirm the parties are actively negotiating, extends that to eighteen months. The Trade Marks Manual is explicit that the period cannot be extended beyond eighteen months, and that if no settlement is reached the applicant must still file the TM8 before the period ends or the application is deemed abandoned.

The opponent can also end cooling off early by filing a notice to continue on Form TM9t, at which point the TM8 becomes due within the time the UKIPO then sets. So cooling off is a negotiation window, not a shelter. Use it to negotiate a coexistence agreement, a limitation of your specification, or a withdrawal on terms, and keep the TM8 drafted in the drawer throughout.

What the counterstatement must do

The TM8 is the pleading that defines the case. The Tribunal section of the Trade Marks Manual describes its purpose precisely: to admit, deny with explanation, or indicate that proof is required of each ground the opponent has set out. Three points decide whether it is any good.

Deny the right things, with reasons. A bare denial of everything reads as evasion and costs credibility with the hearing officer. Admit that the opponent owns the earlier registration if it does. Deny similarity of marks, or of goods, with the specific reasons: the different dominant element, the different trade channels, the different average consumer. Those reasons become the spine of your later submissions.

Put the opponent to proof of use where you can. Under section 6A of the Trade Marks Act 1994, if the earlier mark completed its registration process more than five years before the filing date of your application, you may require the opponent to prove genuine use of the earlier mark for the goods and services relied on. This is the single most valuable box on the form. Opponents with broad, old registrations frequently cannot evidence use across the whole specification, and every good they cannot prove drops out of the comparison.

Do not concede by silence. If a ground is not dealt with in the counterstatement, it stands. Draft against each numbered paragraph of the TM7.

The four ways an opposition ends

First, the opponent withdraws, usually because the TM8 exposed a weak case or because proof of use was demanded and could not be given. Second, you limit the specification, deleting or narrowing the goods that overlap, and the opposition falls away for what remains. Third, the parties sign a coexistence agreement, each undertaking not to challenge the other within defined fields, sometimes with the opposition withdrawn as a term. Fourth, the case is decided by a hearing officer on the papers or after a hearing, with a written decision and a costs award.

The fourth route is slower than most applicants expect: evidence rounds, written submissions and a decision typically run many months from the TM8. It is also where the fixed fee matters, because a defence priced per hour can exceed the value of the mark long before the decision arrives.

Costs at the UKIPO

The Registrar awards costs to the winner on a published scale that is intended as a contribution, not an indemnity. In ordinary cases the figures run to hundreds or low thousands of pounds, not the full legal spend of either side. That cuts both ways. Losing is affordable, which is why weak oppositions get filed; and winning does not recover your fees, which is why a good settlement in cooling off is often worth more than a good decision. The fast track opposition on Form TM7F, limited to section 5(1) and 5(2) grounds and a small number of earlier marks, is designed to be decided on the papers with a fixed costs scale, and if that is what has been filed against you the timetable is shorter still.

Three mistakes that lose oppositions

Ignoring the letter, on the theory that the opponent will go away. They do not need to do anything; rule 18(2) does the work for them. Ringing the opponent's solicitor and making admissions on the phone that then appear in evidence. And filing a home made TM8 that denies everything, requires proof of nothing, and leaves the hearing officer with a pleading that has not engaged with the case.

What we do in the first twenty four hours

Read the TM7 and the earlier marks, check the notification date and diarise the deadline, assess whether proof of use can be demanded, and give you a written view on prospects and on whether to defend, settle or limit. That review is free. If you instruct the defence, the TM8 is drafted against each ground, filed inside the window, and the evidence and submissions follow on a fixed fee agreed in writing before any work begins.