Rolls-Royce has been crowned the nation’s most iconic trade mark in a public poll marking 150 years since Britain became one of the first countries in the world to formalise the protection of brands, the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) has announced.
The Goodwood-built marque pipped Radio Caroline, Twinings and Cadbury to the top spot in a survey that drew around 2,000 nominations, with the public asked to choose the brands they felt had most shaped daily life in the UK. Rounding out the top ten were Bass, Burberry, the Transport for London roundel, Calpol, Mini and the BBC, a roll-call that reads less like a marketing list and more like a cultural autobiography of post-war Britain.
The poll coincides with the 150th anniversary of the UK trade mark register, which opened for business on 1 January 1876 following the passage of the Trade Marks Registration Act 1875. The very first mark to be registered, on day one, was the Bass & Co red triangle label, a piece of intellectual property still in use today and still, as one respondent succinctly observed, attached to “good beer”.
For the SME community, the milestone is more than ceremonial. The register now protects more than 2.5 million marks, with around 200,000 fresh applications received in the past year alone, a record-breaking figure that points to the value modern entrepreneurs place on owning their identity in an increasingly crowded marketplace.
More than 400 trade marks filed before 1900 remain live on the register, a remarkable testament to brand longevity. Bovril (1886), Drambuie (1893), Lyle’s Sugar (1887), Bird’s Custard Powder (1891), Rose’s Lime Juice Cordial (1876) and Woodward’s Gripe Water (1876) are all still trading on the goodwill first banked by their Victorian founders. Even Lyle’s Golden Syrup carries with it the gloriously biblical “Out of the Strong Came Forth Sweetness”, registered in 1884 and quietly enduring on supermarket shelves ever since.
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