Luke Littler trademarked his face. But the real story started a year ago
Luke Littler trademarked his face. But the real story started a year ago.
Luke Littler filed an application with the UK Intellectual Property Office to trademark his face. The story broke today, with experts calling it a "smart move" to protect against AI deepfakes and unauthorised endorsements.
It is a smart move. But framing it as news misses what's actually been happening on the IPO register for over a year.
The portfolio nobody is talking about
Littler's team didn't wake up this week and decide to protect his brand. They started in March 2024, just three months after his extraordinary run to the PDC World Championship final made him one of the most recognisable young athletes in the country.
Here's what the IPO register shows:
UK00004032415 - LUKE LITTLER Filed 28 March 2024. Registered 28 June 2024. Six classes covering printed matter, bags, clothing, games, advertising services, and entertainment.
UK00004079461 - LUKE LITTLER Filed 24 July 2024. Registered 18 October 2024. Three additional classes covering food, snacks, and drinks.
UK00004079465 - LUKE THE NUKE LITTLER Filed 24 July 2024. Registered 18 October 2024. Nine classes covering the full spread: printed matter, bags, clothing, games, food, snacks, drinks, advertising, and entertainment.
UK00004079468 - THE NUKE Filed 24 July 2024. Registered 22 November 2024. Eight classes covering everything except drinks.
All four registrations are owned by Luke Littler Darts Limited (Company No. 15392765), managed by ZXF Sports Management out of Rochdale. All filed through Sheridans Solicitors LLP, a London entertainment law firm with a strong track record in talent IP.
The face trademark application is the fifth filing. It's not the beginning of a strategy. It's the latest layer of one that's been methodically built over 12 months.
Why those specific classes matter
The class choices aren't random. They map directly to Littler's commercial deals.
Classes 29, 30, and 32 cover food, snacks, and beverages. That's the KP Nuts partnership protected. Class 25 covers clothing. Class 28 covers games and sporting articles, which is the Target Darts deal. Classes 35 and 41 cover advertising and entertainment, protecting his broader commercial and media activities.
By filing "LUKE LITTLER," "LUKE THE NUKE LITTLER," and "THE NUKE" separately, the portfolio covers multiple variations of his brand identity. If someone tried to register "The Nuke" for darts accessories, there's already a registered mark blocking them.
This is textbook IP portfolio management, the kind of systematic approach you normally only see from large corporate brand teams. Except Littler is 19.
The deepfake angle and the government report
The face trademark is getting attention because of the deepfake angle, and that's legitimate. But it's worth noting that the UK government published its 125-page report on Copyright and AI just two days ago. That report includes an entire section on digital replicas, noting that existing UK law doesn't provide a general personal image right.
The report says trademarking your likeness is one of the existing protections available, but calls it limited. It also notes that trade mark infringement can only be invoked where the use is "in the course of trade," meaning the mark wouldn't stop someone creating a deepfake for non-commercial purposes.
The experts quoted in today's coverage echo this. One IP lawyer called it "potentially a smart move" but "not a silver bullet." Another noted it "won't stop all online misuse."
What it does do is give Littler's team a clear enforcement route for commercial misuse, counterfeit merchandise, and unauthorised endorsement claims. Combined with the existing name and nickname registrations, it creates a layered defence that covers most of the scenarios where someone would try to profit from his image.
The Dryrobe parallel
There's an interesting parallel with the Dryrobe case from last year, where the High Court upheld a trademark against a genericide challenge in part because the company had engaged in what the judge described as "relentless" monitoring and enforcement. The court didn't just approve the monitoring. It treated it as evidence that the trademark was functioning properly.
Littler's team is doing the same thing, just proactively rather than reactively. Filing early, filing broadly, covering every commercial use before someone else tries to occupy the space.
What this means for everyone else
Littler's team can afford Sheridans. They have a structured IP strategy managed by professional sports management. The trademarks were filed months before the commercial deals were public, which means someone was thinking ahead.
Most business owners don't have this luxury. They file a trademark and assume the hard part is done. They don't know that every application gets published in the Trade Marks Journal with a two-month opposition window. They don't monitor for conflicting filings. They find out there's a problem when it's already too late to oppose and the only option is expensive legal action.
Every one of Littler's four registrations went through that two-month window. If a speculative filer had beaten his team to "The Nuke" in Class 28, they'd have been in an opposition fight before his career was 12 months old.
The difference isn't that Littler is famous. It's that someone was watching from the start.
Check your brand
You don't need a London law firm to know whether someone is filing trademarks that conflict with your brand. TMGuard monitors the UK Trade Marks Journal weekly and alerts you in plain English when something needs your attention.
Run a free check at tmguard.uk/check to see what's already out there.