Trademark Search
First step towards trademark registration is to find availability of your brand name
What is trademark search?
Trademark searches refer to any action taken for the purpose of determining whether and/or a trademark is used in commerce.
With nearly 60 million live trademarks in the world today, your trademark clearance strategies need to be comprehensive and reliable to ensure your brand is fully protected.
Your application will be rejected if your trademark is similar to a pre-existing trademark. Therefore, you will want to run your search in such a way to find any similar marks that exist. Because relevant goods or services can be hidden in other classes, it’s always a good idea to run your search without any class ID, and instead focus on the goods/services.
Why is trademark search important?
When you create a unique logo for your company or a name for your company’s products or services, you want to be sure that no one else uses the same logo or name elsewhere. Aside from this, you also need to make sure that the image/name you are using doesn’t infringe upon any registered trademarks. Turning your logo or name into a registered trademark involves some effort and this is where a trademark search comes in.
In most instances, trademark searching is an important first step in any trademark registration or brand launch strategy, as it enables companies to avoid adopting brands that infringe third-party trademark rights. A more focused search conducted by a trained trademark searching company or attorney may be advisable as well. When you or your company are ready to go to market or are already in the marketplace using a trademark, it is usually advisable to see who else may be using that mark before attempting to register it.
Trademarks are sought to protect the identity of a business/company. When a TM search is conducted, the possibility of a trademark being similar to an existing trademark is checked. Individuals and companies who fail to perform a TM search early on often regret later when they find themselves embroiled in expensive legal disputes or in situations when they are compelled to change their trademark, both of which could have been easily avoided with a simple TM search.
Why is it necessary to do a trademark search?
On a daily basis our firm receives calls from potential clients who are under the impression that their desired trademark is clear because they ran a trademark search on the government’s site and no results were returned. Trademarking is not a simple process. Your biggest threat to getting the protection that you want is the way in which other businesses use your brand or brands like it. An accurate trademark search is absolutely essential to obtaining strong trademarks.
Performing a comprehensive search study before you decide to register your brand mark is a wise decision especially when you consider future risks of litigation. As we will see in a moment, just because there is no exact hit for a desired trademark, does not guarantee that the trademark is clear. A much more in depth search is required before drawing that conclusion.
It is a good idea to conduct a study before you start doing business with a trademark. It may not be in your best interest to use a mark if another company is already actively conducting business in the same class. That company may be able to object to your use of the trademark and prohibit you from using the mark in a court of law. We recommend that you conduct a trademark search before filing an application to register the mark. In fact, it is preferred to conduct a trademark search as soon as you have an idea for a product or business name that you think might have current or future economic value.
