Sintons helps children’s hair care range go nationwide

Sintons’ Intellectual Property team has successfully secured brand protection for a new line of children’s hair care products which has enabled the brand to gain listings in a major retailer nationally.

Two years ago, entrepreneurial couple, Geoff and Colette Bell, began to develop their up and coming children’s hair care range, “Shampooheads”.

Geoff sought advice from Intellectual Property specialist, Pippa Aitken regarding the new venture, involving dermatologically tested, irritation free line of hair care products for children together with bath time adventure books. They also developed an idea for characters to sit alongside the products which were based on their children, “Raging Rosie”, “Awesome Annie” and “Busy Bob”.

As the hair care range and bath time books were not novel, it was unlikely that a patent could be obtained so Pippa identified other ways of protecting the brand.

After clearance checks to ensure no one else was using the names of the characters and the brand name “Shampooheads”, Pippa successfully registered the names as Trade Marks and drawings of the characters as Designs at the UK Intellectual Property Office.

As an external designer was used for the branding, Pippa ensured that all copyright and designs of logos and images were vested in Geoff’s company. As this would not happen automatically, a legal agreement transferring the rights was put in place.

Geoff and Colette have now signed a deal with Boots in the UK and Ireland and their products are now available to buy in 483 stores nationwide.

Geoff Bell commented: “The sound advice and direction from Pippa has allowed us to secure our brand identity with a focus on design and branding rather than product novelty. This has been vital to our business concept. We are delighted with the expertise and support provided.”

Pippa Aitken commented: “We were delighted to help Geoff and Colette to protect the Shampooheads brand. We know how important it is to secure any intellectual property as early as possible to avoid problems further down the line and to protect the commercial value of the brand. It is fantastic to see a client’s initial ideas grow into an outstanding product being sold in the shops.”