Blog

How to search trademarks

One of the hardest things to do is come up with the name for a company or product that not only sounds good, but hasn’t already been used and has a decent set of domain names available. There’s also one more thing to think about - has the name been registered as a trademark?

In all likelyhood, if you type your name into Google and don’t get any relevant results then it probably hasn’t been registered. However, you cannot be entirely certain as a company may have registered the name for future use and so it is important to check the various trademark registers to be sure.

A trademark search can be done yourself using self service online tools or you can pay a legal advisor to do it for you. Obviously, you will have to pay for the latter and although a lawyer will be able to give you specific advice and do a more detailed search through the relevant IP offices, we have found that if you combine Google, the availability of domain names and no results from an online trademark search, you’re usually fine!

So where can you search? Unfortunately there is no single worldwide trademark registry so you need to do searches in a number of key locations where you intend to do business. At the very least, this should include a UK and US search.

It is important to understand how trademarks work, in particular how the different classes relate to how a trademark can be used and opposed. A trademark is generally registered in one or more classes and Person A may use the same trademark as Person B if it is in a different class (and is not already registered and is not opposed). This means that when you search, you should perform the search across all classes or in classes relevant to your intended use. See this cross search guide from the UK Intellectual Property Office for information.

So where can you do the searches?

• Australia - Trade Mark Search
• Canada - Intellectual Property Office
• Germany - Patent and Trade Mark Office
• Ireland - Patents Office
• UK - Intellectual Property Office
• US - Patent and Trademark Office

Finally, the Singapore Government provide a free service called SurfIP that allows you to search a wide range of trademark databases simultaneously - Canada, China, European, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Taipei, Thailand, UK, US and the World Intellectual Property Organisation.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 26th, 2008 at 9:39 pm and is filed under Legal. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Leave a comment