Startup beats TikTok at its own game, with Lord Sugar in its corner

A small business defeated one of the world’s most powerful tech companies in an intellectual property fight, winning the right to keep its name, and TikTok was ordered to pay costs.

In a ruling that will resonate across the small business community, an independent financial trading education platform emerged victorious after a two-year legal battle with TikTok Information Technologies UK Limited – the British arm of ByteDance, one of the world’s most valuable technology companies.

Isle of Man-based TickTickTrader Ltd applied in April 2023 to register the trademark ‘TickTickTrader’ – a name rooted in futures trading terminology, where a ‘tick’ is the minimum price movement on an exchange. TikTok’s legal team, an international powerhouse law firm, opposed the application in full, arguing the name was confusingly similar to its own globally recognized brand and threatened to dilute TikTok’s reputation. The cease-and-desist letter demanded that TickTickTrader withdraw its application, abandon the name, and sign undertakings by a deadline of 14 days.

Large corporations routinely initiate trademark disputes to protect their brands, often placing smaller businesses under significant pressure to defend or give up their identity. However, TickTickTrader – which has 50 employees – refused. With support from Trade Mark Wizards, the London-based intellectual property firm backed by entrepreneur and The Apprentice star Lord Sugar (who’s a director of the company), it fought back. On 19 February 2026, Hearing Officer Mrs E Fisher of the UK Intellectual Property Office dismissed both grounds of TikTok’s opposition in full – and ordered TikTok to pay costs.

A Board Member of TickTickTrader said, “We were effectively being asked to give up our brand entirely. For a small business, that’s not just a legal issue – it’s your identity, your work, everything you’ve built. It would have been easy to walk away, but we knew the name meant something, and we believed we were right to keep it.

“Having the right support around us made all the difference. It gave us the confidence to stand our ground. Seeing the decision come through in our favor was a huge moment for us.”

For small businesses and startups, the case offers a practical lesson: a well-argued defense, grounded in the actual meaning and context of a brand name, can prevail even against a household name with vast legal resources. The decision also reinforces the importance of independent legal representation and a willingness to contest, rather than concede to, corporate pressure.

‘Tick Tick’ is not ‘Tik Tok’

The hearing officer found the marks to be visually and aurally similar only to a medium degree, and crucially, conceptually dissimilar. “I find there is no likelihood of direct or indirect confusion”, the UKIPO decision reads.

Where TikTok evokes the sound of a clock (tick-tock), TickTickTrader conjures the image of a trader methodically checking tasks, incremental gain by gain. The word ‘trader’ was found to be neither irrelevant nor descriptive – it formed an integral part of the overall impression of the mark.

The officer rejected TikTok’s argument that TickTickTrader would be seen as a brand extension of TikTok – in the same family as TikTok Shop, TikTok Pay, or TikTok Live – calling the logic unconvincing. She found no likelihood of direct or indirect confusion, and no mental link between the marks that could cause consumers to associate the two businesses. The official UKIPO decision reads: “I find that there is no link between the marks.” 

The ruling noted that consumers purchasing education and training services – a considered, high-attention purchase – were unlikely to be confused by two marks with clear visual, conceptual, and commercial differences. TikTok’s reputation, however considerable, did not give it the right to monopolize the market.

Big tech, small business, and the growing threat to entrepreneurs

For Trade Mark Wizards, the case is illustrative of a wider pattern: large corporations leveraging the disproportionate commercial pressure that legal proceedings can place on smaller businesses, regardless of the underlying merits. This wasn’t mild enforcement – this was total brand shutdown territory.

Lord Sugar, Director, Trade Mark Wizards: “I’ve been in business long enough to recognize this pattern straight away. Big companies think they can throw their weight around and that smaller businesses will just roll over because they can’t afford the fight. That’s not how it’s supposed to work.

“What mattered here is that the claim didn’t stack up – and when it was properly tested, it failed. You don’t get to own every name that sounds vaguely similar to your own just because you’re a big brand. If you’re right, you’re right. If you’re not, you lose. Simple as that.

“This is exactly the kind of situation where having a legal team that knows how to push back makes all the difference.”

Oliver Oguz, Managing Director of Trade Mark Wizards, said: “The playbook used to be simple – if you’re a big company and a small business gets in your way, you throw lawyers at it and wait for them to blink. That playbook is finished. This decision is proof that the rules apply to everyone, regardless of how many zeros are in your legal budget. TikTok had every resource in the world at its disposal. They still lost because the facts didn’t support them. Small businesses need to know that big tech does not have a monopoly on these proceedings. The system works if you’re prepared to use it.”

The UKIPO’s ruling confirms that TickTickTrader may proceed to full trademark registration, which it has done in several key global territories. TikTok has been ordered to pay £1,700 in costs – a sum that is more symbolic than punitive, but which reflects the IPO’s clear view on the merits. TikTok’s appeal window has closed, and the decision is final.

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