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How to search trademarks
Wednesday, March 26th, 2008
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.
No Take Downs
Friday, February 22nd, 2008
One of the potential uses Attenalert has is to monitor trademark usage. Indeed, it is particularly suited to that because trademarks tend to be single words or short phrases and Attenalert can discover where they are being referenced online.
Once you own a trademark, it is important to enforce your rights under it otherwise you could lose them. This is particularly the case if your trademark becomes a commonly used word. Companies such as Google and Xerox have this problem because of the popularity of their brand names.
One possible solution is going down the legal route of sending take down notices, also known as cease and desist. Unsurprisingly, this will often scare the recipient into complying but it is not always the best option for that very reason, as the Church of Scientology has recently found out with regards to the leaked video.
A better solution could be to try and work with the site that is (mis)using your trademark to come to some kind of arrangement whereby you can receive a link back from their site but at the same time enforce your trademark usage guidelines. Attributor have posted a useful set of 10 reasons why you should avoid the legal route where possible. It is in relation to copied content but the same ideas no doubt apply for trademarks too.