Hospitality Brands: Own Your IP Before Speaking To Investors

Following the recent £1.4bn deal involving The Ivy Collection, there’s been a lot of focus on brand value, and rightly so.

In hospitality, investors are buying brand and reputation, not just bricks and mortar. Intangible assets are the deal drivers in this industry. Branded hotels, for example, achieve a higher transaction price and shorter marketing time than similar independent venues.

But there’s a second, less visible issue that often matters just as much in a transaction: who actually owns the IP?

It is one thing to have a valuable brand. It’s another to be able to prove that the right entity owns it, cleanly, quickly and without question.

According to the latest figures, there are 176,685 hospitality businesses in the UK. This is a huge, competitive, brand-led sector. Clear ownership of names, logos, concepts and franchise rights is crucial.

Common IP mistakes with growing hospitality brands

In growing hospitality businesses, IP ownership is often an afterthought. In our experience working with hospitality brands, we commonly see:

• Trade marks filed under an early-stage company that pre-dates the group structure
• A founder’s personal name, trade marked or simply used as a brand asset, without formal assignment to the group
• Different entities across the group
• Expansion (franchises, pop-ups) started without UK marks registered 
• Brand collaborations done without checking underlying ownership

The moment investors, lenders or buyers get involved, those decisions get scrutinised. And what looks like a technicality internally can become a deal risk externally.

Investors don’t like uncertainty

When due diligence starts, investors are looking at more than just your numbers. They’re asking:

• Does the company we’re investing in actually own the brand?
• Are there any third-party rights or historic claims?
• Can this IP be transferred, licensed or enforced without issue?

If the answer to any of those is unclear, it slows everything down.

This can entail additional legal work, restructuring and cost. It can even affect valuation or confidence in the deal entirely.

Clean IP structures drive faster, stronger deals

Well-structured IP ownership does three things:

1. Removes friction – no last-minute assignments or emergency fixes
2. Builds confidence – investors can see the asset sits exactly where it should
3. Supports scale – licensing, franchising and international growth become far simpler

This is what sophisticated buyers expect. It’s also what allows premium brands to move quickly when opportunities arise.

Fixing ownership issues late is always more expensive

Reassigning IP between entities, unwinding historic arrangements or dealing with missing documentation is all possible. But doing it under deal pressure? That’s where it becomes slow, expensive and risky.

Crucially, it will invite questions you don’t want to be answering when value is on the table.

If your brand is the asset, then ownership of that brand needs to be clear, centralised and legally robust.

Anything less creates doubt, which has the potential to jeopardise deals.

Take control of your IP before investors ever see your hospitality business

If you’re planning to raise investment, expand or position for a sale, this is not something to leave until due diligence begins. By then, it’s already too late to fix it cleanly.

IP ownership should be addressed quietly, strategically, and on your own terms before your second site, before any franchise conversations or before you look to build a national or international profile.

This way, when investors look under the hood, everything will be exactly where it should be.

Our IP specialists work with brands right across the luxury hospitality sector, including hotel groups, golf clubs and high-end restaurant groups and chefs. We can help you to:

• Audit existing IP ownership
• Consolidate rights into the correct entity
• Eliminate risks before they become deal issues

Do this before the conversations start, not while you’re in them.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.