The first UK trademark was registered 150 years ago. Most businesses still don't monitor the register
On 1 January 1876, the UK's Trade Marks Registration Act 1875 came into effect. That morning, the first trademark was registered: a beer label for Bass & Co's Pale Ale, featuring what would become one of the most recognisable logos in history.
Trade Mark No. 1 was a label showing the words "Bass & Co's Pale Ale" alongside the now-famous red triangle. Legend has it that a Bass employee queued overnight outside the registrar's office on New Year's Eve to secure the first spot, though there's no hard evidence this actually happened. What is certain is that Bass, Ratcliff & Gretton Limited received the first six registrations that day.
The red triangle went on to appear in Manet's 1882 painting "A Bar at the Folies-Bergere," in over 40 Picasso works around 1914, and in James Joyce's "Ulysses." It may be the most painted trademark in history.
150 years, 3.87 million trademarks
That single registration in 1876 was the beginning of what is now a register of 3,874,122 UK trademarks. Of those, 2,325,256 are currently live and protected. 8.3 million Nice class records cover everything from software to sausages.
We know this because TMGuard now holds the complete UK trademark register, from Trade Mark No. 1 right through to the applications filed yesterday. Every mark, every class, every applicant, every status change. Direct access to the IPO register, updated daily.
What 150 years of data reveals
When you look at the full register, patterns emerge that individual filings don't show.
Right now, 164,742 trademark applications are pending: published, in examination, or being opposed. That's 164,000 brands working their way through the system, any one of which could conflict with yours.
22,650 trademarks are due to expire in April 2026 alone. Nearly 60,000 expire across Q2 2026. Every one of those represents a business that needs to decide whether to renew, and if they don't, their brand loses protection.
1.2 million trademarks on the register are dead: refused, withdrawn, surrendered, or cancelled. That's roughly one in three. Not every application succeeds, and not every registration lasts.
42% of the entire register consists of international designations filed through the Madrid Protocol. Nearly half the marks protecting brands in the UK were filed by businesses outside the country.
Why this still matters
Bass protected their brand on the very first day it was possible to do so. 150 years later, the same instinct applies. The register is larger, the competition is fiercer, and the consequences of missing a conflicting filing are more expensive than ever.
The difference is that in 1876, you could read every new trademark by hand. Today, thousands of new applications are published every week. Without monitoring, you won't know about the ones that matter until it's too late.
If it was worth queuing overnight in the cold for Bass in 1876, it's worth 60 seconds to set up monitoring in 2026.