UK SIC 2007 · 77400
Leasing of intellectual property and similar products, except copyright works (SIC code 77400)
Leasing of intellectual property and similar products, except copyright works is UK SIC code 77400. It sits in division 77 (Rental and leasing activities) of the SIC 2007 list. On the August 2026 Companies House register, 3,091 active UK companies list 77400 among their SIC codes. 1,625 of them list it first.
Division 77: Rental and leasing activities
Division 77 covers anything hired out for a fee. Vehicle hire under 77110 is the biggest single trade. Next comes the general equipment code 77390, which stretches from portable toilets to catering kit. Construction plant hire is 77320. Code 77400 is the odd one out. It covers leasing of intellectual property, such as franchise rights and brands, which has nothing in common with the physical hire trades. Code 77291 marks media and entertainment equipment rental, used by camera and lighting hire houses serving film and events.
Related SIC codes
77291, Renting and leasing of media entertainment equipment77210, Renting and leasing of recreational and sports goods77120, Renting and leasing of trucks and other heavy vehicles77299, Renting and leasing of other personal and household goods77310, Renting and leasing of agricultural machinery and equipmentWho prospects SIC 77400 companies
Asset-heavy businesses are good to sell to, because their spending is predictable. They finance fleets and equipment. They insure everything they own. They buy tracking, booking and maintenance software. Asset finance brokers watch the plant hire and vehicle codes for new companies, since a first fleet purchase usually follows. Insurance intermediaries aim at the same moment. Growth signals count for more here than in most divisions. A hire firm that is expanding is buying more assets by definition. Local construction activity lifts 77320 operators along with it.
Lead generation for commercial & B2B services →How to read SIC 77400
SIC 77400 is a five-digit code, and the digits are not arbitrary. The first two, 77, are the division, rental and leasing activities. Add the third and you have group 774; the fourth narrows it to a class, and the fifth to the subclass, which is the level Companies House actually asks a company to pick. The whole division sits under section N, administrative and support service activities, the broadest tier there is. Reading a code left to right therefore goes from a whole sector down to one activity.
More on how SIC 77400 is built
A company chooses its own codes when it incorporates and can change them on any confirmation statement. It may list up to four, and Companies House does not check whether they are right. That is why 77400 is worth reading as a claim the company made about itself rather than as a verified fact, and why the first-position and any-position counts above differ.
Measured on the August 2026 register, the busiest registered-office post towns for 77400 are London (1,008), Glasgow (64), Birmingham (53), Manchester (50) and Edinburgh (38). Those are registered-office locations, which is where the paperwork sits rather than necessarily where the work happens, so treat them as where to start looking rather than as a service area.
Using SIC 77400 as a filter
3,091 companies is 0.06 per cent of the 5,190,464 active companies on the UK register, and ranks 77400 4th most used of the 10 codes we track in division 77. That is the pool before any filter. Whether it is a big market for you depends on what you sell, but it is the number every other filter on this page cuts down from.
More on filtering by SIC 77400
Only 1,625 of the 3,091 companies carrying 77400 put it first. The other 1,466, 47 per cent, list it behind another code, which usually means the business does more than one thing and files 77400 as a sideline. A search that matches the first code only will miss most of this population, so match on any of the four SIC positions and use a second filter to tighten it.
The population is concentrated: the five busiest post towns hold 39 per cent of it, and London alone accounts for 33 per cent. If you sell nationally, those five towns are most of the market. If you sell locally and you are not in one of them, expect a much smaller pool and widen the radius early.
In practice the code on its own is rarely the whole filter. Pair 77400 with an incorporation date to catch companies in their first months, when they are still choosing suppliers, or with a filing deadline to reach them while the year end is on their mind. A worked example for this code: 77400, registered office in London, incorporated in the last ninety days, which turns a 3,091 company pool into a list you can write to in an afternoon. Add the poor-website filter if what you sell is a website, or a recent change of officer if you sell to whoever just took the job. Every company you pull carries the Companies House record, the director's name, a verified website and a verified email, and the ones we cannot complete are not charged.
Where SIC 77400 clusters in the UK
ACTIVE COMPANIES BY REGISTERED-OFFICE POST TOWN · COMPANIES HOUSE REGISTER, AUGUST 2026
SIC 77400 companies, as leads
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About SIC 77400
How many UK companies use SIC code 77400?
3,091 active UK companies list 77400 (Leasing of intellectual property and similar products, except copyright works) among their registered SIC codes. Each company may register up to four. Of those, 1,625 put it first. The figures come from the August 2026 Companies House register snapshot, and count active companies only.
Which SIC code fits a plant hire business?
Hiring out diggers, dumpers and similar kit without an operator sits under 77320. If your machines go out with your own operators, that counts as construction instead. Use the relevant division 43 code, because you are delivering the work rather than renting the asset. Many firms do both and register both codes. Companies House allows up to 4.
Do I need to change my SIC code if I move from selling equipment to renting it?
You should, so the public record matches reality. Nothing forces you to do it at once. You update codes on your next confirmation statement (CS01), which every company files at least once a year. There is no approval step and no fee beyond the statement. Accuracy pays commercially too. Lenders, insurers and suppliers increasingly pull Companies House data when they assess hire businesses.
Find UK SIC 77400 companies
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