How to identify patent and trademark [Definitive Guide]



Last updated : Sept 27, 2022
Written by : Raymon Phetsanghane
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How to identify patent and trademark

How do I know if a name is patent?

You can search all applied-for and registered trademarks free of charge by using the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)'s Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS). If your mark includes a design element, you will have to search it by using a design code.

How do I know if a product has a patent?

  1. Patent Public Search.
  2. USPTO Patent Full-Text and Image Database (PatFT)
  3. USPTO Patent Application Full-Text and Image Database (AppFT)
  4. Global Dossier.
  5. Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR)
  6. Public Search Facility.
  7. Patent and Trademark Resource Centers (PTRCs)

What is the difference between a patent and a trademark?

What's the Difference Between Patents and Trademarks? A patent allows the creator of certain kinds of inventions that contain new ideas to keep others from making commercial use of those ideas without the creator's permission. Trademarks, on the other hand, are not concerned with how a new technology is used.

What are the 3 types of patents?

What kind of patent do you need? There are three types of patents - Utility, Design, and Plant. Utility patents may be granted to anyone who invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, article of manufacture, or compositions of matters, or any new useful improvement thereof.

What is an example of a patent?

Examples of inventions protected by utility patents are a microwave oven, genetically engineered bacteria for cleaning up oil spills, a computerized method of running cash management accounts, and a method for curing rubber.

How do I check a trademark name?

Under the Vienna code classification, if the brand name has a logo, then a trademark search gives you the information and details of similar brand names. It is essential to conduct a Trademark search to register the applicants' trademark or brand mark logo under the Trademark Act.

What products have a patent?

  • Business methods.
  • Computer software.
  • Computer hardware.
  • Computer accessories.
  • Games.
  • Internet advances.
  • Jewelry.
  • Machines.

Where can I find the patent number on a product?

Companies often include patent numbers on products, product packaging and in manuals in order to provide public notice of their patent rights. The next time you buy a product, look closely at the label or packaging to see if any patent numbers are listed.

Can I sell a patented product?

The U.S. Supreme Court in a recent ruling has opined on the rights of a purchaser to use and resell patented products. The patent system give the patent owner the right to exclude others from making, using, and selling the patented invention, for the life of the patent.

What is example of trademark?

Brand names like Apple, McDonald's, and Dolce & Gabbana. Product names like iPod and Big Mac. Company logos like the golden arches at McDonald's and NBC's peacock logo.

Is a copyright a patent?

How is a copyright different from a patent or a trademark? Copyright protects original works of authorship, while a patent protects inventions or discoveries. Ideas and discoveries are not protected by the copyright law, although the way in which they are expressed may be.

How long does a trademark last?

A federal trademark lasts 10 years from the date of registration, with 10-year renewal terms. Between the fifth and sixth year after the registration date, the registrant must file an affidavit to state that the mark is still in use.

How does a patent look like?

The text has a front page stating the patent holder's details, the filing date of the patent application and the inventor's full name. This is followed by a description of the invention itself, including the advantages of the invention in terms of the current situation.

What are the 4 types of patent?

  • Utility patent. This is what most people think of when they think about a patent.
  • Provisional patent.
  • Design patent.
  • Plant patent.

What is not patentable?

Plants and animals in whole or any part thereof other than microorganisms. Mathematical or business method or a computer program per se or algorithms. literary, dramatic, musical or artistic works, cinematographic works, television productions and any other aesthetic creations.

What is the most famous patent?

1. The Lightbulb. The electric lightbulb is perhaps one of the most famous patented inventions known to humankind. It was awarded to Thomas Alva Edison in the year 1878.

Do patents expire?

Patent Expiration Utility patents expire four, eight, and 12 years after issuance of the patent if the maintenance fees are not paid at these points in time. The patent actually expires at 3.5 years, 7.5 years, and 11.5 years, but there is a six-month grace period in which to pay the maintenance fee.

Why is it called a patent?

The word patent originates from the Latin patere, which means "to lay open" (i.e., to make available for public inspection).

Can a name be trademarked?

To be protected as a trademark, a personal name must be used as a trademark—the name must be used as a source identifier, to distinguish the goods or services of a particular source.

When can you use a TM symbol?

TM stands for trademark. The TM symbol (often seen in superscript like this: TM) is usually used in connection with an unregistered mark—a term, slogan, logo, or other indicator—to provide notice to potential infringers that common law rights in the mark are claimed.


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How to identify patent and trademark


Comment by Warren Dupaty

what is up heroes welcome to the channel if you're new to this channel welcome so today I'm going to be talking to you guys about the best way to check if a product is patented or trademark and I'm gonna show you how to do it step-by-step alright so this video is super important it's it's it's super important because you don't want to waste any time trying to look and dissect the product if it's well worth getting into come to find out that it is patented okay I have people that send me product like I have dozens and dozens of people send me products potential products every day and you know I'm like hey did you check if it's patent it and then they're like oh crap I didn't check and then they go to check and it's actually patented and then they just wasted a whole bunch of time so make sure that you guys are checking you guys are going through this step I'm going to show you guys how to do it step by step and before has before I get into it as a disclaimer I'm not an attorney I'm not a lawyer so I am NOT I cannot give you guys legal advice but I can give you guys information I can give you leave you guys in the right direction before you decide to you want to take the extra measure take the extra step and hire someone so yeah I you know you guys may think that I know everything but I don't unfortunately start to break it to you but I just want to save you guys some time that's the reason why I made this channel so I can save you guys time alright so I guess that's it so let's get into this video without further ado and I'll see you guys inside alright guys so let us get into this okay so like I said earlier during the video I am NOT an attorney and I'm not a lawyer even though some of you think I am for some reason alright but let's get into this so let's say for example you found a potential product and you're like oh Lee Kravitz I am using this as an example because I thought was pretty cool okay let's say you found this product okay it's caught it's called a LED flashlights gloves okay we're out of flashlight gloves and you're like holy crap this product is sick it's doing crazy amounts of numbers you're like holy crap before you move on to like see you know like contact suppliers and you know waste your time like my goal like I told you guys is to save you guys time do this we're gonna go look at for gonna look first and we're gonna go look if it's patented okay so we're gonna go on a website called Google patents I'll keep all the links in the description from this video down below so it'll make it a lot easier for and we're going to take the broadest keyword so if the broadest keyword is flashlights gloves then we're going to put that into the search keep the search bar here at Pat the Google patent so you don't want to put fingerless LED gloves for repairing or you know flashlights gloves for repairing working in darkness place you guys get the point get the broadest keyword it's a flashlight glove okay so we're going to do is we're gonna go into Google we're gonna type in a flashlight live alright so you'll see here that we have a couple that are you'll see that like you'll see like oh crap like you know look watch like let's just open up this patent right here and then you'll see that like there let's look we'll go and look at the images first if there's images perfect you guys can open up the images I here the damages so you'll see like okay so that it's a glove with a little flashlight on it and like this is a glove with a flashlight on it too so you know you're like oh crap like it might be patented and then you know we'll go look a little bit more let's go look at this product right here same thing I don't even know if that's a glove or not and then look at here and we'll start to get idea like oh crap you know what there's probably a patent on this product you can tell by just to look in the up these images and then reading a description I mean if you're typing in flashlight glove and then you're seeing things like flashlights gloves as a title and you know I mean like when meeting glove then there's a chance that these products are Pat this product is actually patented okay so make sure that you guys are looking at the titles and you're reading a description and you're looking at the images this is a way to be like oh crap you know this product is probably patented alright so the second way that we're going to look if the product has a trademark is to look on the website called USPTO which stands for the United States Patent and Trademark sort office all right so it's uspto.gov like I said I'll keep the descript in the description from this video down below alright so what we're going to do is we're going to go on the website we're gonna click trade search trademark database right here scroll down and then we're gonna click search trademarks okay and then right here we're going to do is we're going to click the basic word mark search alright and then here we're going to type in our product which was the let me go back flashlight flashlight glove I'll just do flashlight glove alright so we don't see anything there flashlights gloves okay so it's probably going to be the trademark of the actual company itself so it's corolla controller okay so there at see now we have some things to look at here so we'll I mean if we're looking at this product it doesn't seem this looks like a more of like a you know like a biking kind of product or something for outdoors this is more for like baby bedding and looks looks like it's more for you know household and stuff but definitely looking at the trademarks or the USPTO will be a good way to see if the product has started that brand has a trademark on it and if it has a trademark on it they're chances are that there have a patent on the product so this is like another step you guys can take what I'm going to show you guys the best thing that you guys can possibly do like I have people that say like hey Derrick I let's say let's say for example guys that this particular product you searched Google patents and there's absolutely nothing on flashlight gloves and you're like okay dark there's nothing on flashlight gloves and I checked USPTO there's no trademark on the brand and so you're like what do I do now but I'm still a little skeptical so this is a step that I teach all of my students and I make sure everybody does and it's a highly highly recommended is to hire someone an attorney to do a patent search for you okay so I use a guy he's on fiber he he is absolutely amazing he's done all my patent searches for me alright he's done hundreds of people that I not hundreds but I like to exaggerate if you guys can say so he's done dozens of people that I know and he's helped them and he's helped me personally he will deaf people do an in-depth search of your pabts a patent a potential patent on the product you're looking at let him do all the dirty work let him do all the the the searching for you guys he only takes like it literally takes like yeah like a like a day for him to be able to search these for free or to day delivery to pretend to get this information so you guys trust me it's


Thanks for your comment Warren Dupaty, have a nice day.
- Raymon Phetsanghane, Staff Member


Comment by Sharolyn

lysol right this is a brand we probably have heard a lot about recently with all the covid stuff going on it's a brand right well how do you tell whether a product is patented or trademarked how do you find out what do you look for did you know that lysol actually has a registered trademark and how would you know that well it's got a r with a circle on it crisp linen has a registered trademark as well how do they get that let's talk about it today i'm jd hubner managing partner and ceo at bold patents law firm and today we're going to talk about how to look for products and know whether they're patented or trademarked what to look for how to do that research so this video will cover a lot of different subjects and i know you may not be able to sit through the whole video so please look at the bookmarks and the timestamps below and what we're going to cover today is four major topics on the patenting how to do the research um on the actual product that you're holding and looking at it to tell whether they have patent rights and what that means for you then how to do the research online whether they're looking at products they've listed on their website or on the uspto or google patents website to see what rights they might hold for that specific product then we're going to look at the trademark side the next two components trademarks on the actual product right how do they got it labeled what does that mean where to find it and what does that significantly mean for you and your own business then of course trademark searching what about that company or that product can you find out online where to go look to research what rights they have on that specific logo or word mark all right let's jump into it so with that bookmark in mind the first subject is going to be patent research on the product what have they got listed on now the most common way to label a patent product is going to say patented then the number right and so there's two different ways to do that it says us patent and it'll say d the letter d and then a set of numbers if there's a d like d like dog that means there's a design patent on that specific product design patents are just not that prevalent there are not that many design patents out there i think today as we as i record this video there are fewer than one million and it may sound like a lot to you but on the utility patent side there are over 11 million utility patents that have been issued so more than 10 times as many utility patents than design patents so if there's not a d in front of that it says us and then a what'll be a seven digit number maybe even a ten eight digit number uh out into the 10 million plus range that is like the utility pack that they own now if they don't have a number right if it doesn't say us patent and then a nine or eight or nine digit uh number you will want to then look for patent pending uh sometimes it's abbreviated as pat pending p-a-t dot pending so if it says that all that means to you is that they have filed a patent application what you've got to understand about that is that it could mean a provisional patent application it could mean a design patent application or a non-provisional patent application and the tough part about that is that you're not going to be able to know when they filed or what kind of application it is unless it's been published and in the u.s the patent applications that get filed don't get published for a year and a half after their submittal and sometimes they never get published because it's a provisional that doesn't get followed up by a non-provisional a year later so a little bit of a history a little bit of background on provisional versus non-provisional a provisional is a less formal version of a utility patent application and it must be followed up must be followed up by a non-provisional patent application within a year if it's not filed that provisional gets abandoned and actually never gets published but during that year you bet it is totally legal for that company to put on their products patent pending because they are their patent is pending they actually have filed their application before the uspto and that date is secure for just that one year but if they never follow up with a non-provisional that provisional has actually gone abandoned and in truth they are no longer pending so it's a little bit of a mis you know a misstatement for some products that if they actually have labeled patent pending but they never proceed with that non-provisional after a year that patents truly not pending so let's jump to the second part of patent uh how to find out whether a product's patented or not is searching online so you've got obviously hopefully you've got an image or online or you've got the actual product in your hands about what you're looking at finding out finding out whether this is a patented or not if there's no numbers and it just says patent pending you can begin to research on the company name whether they may be the owner of that patent and you can do so at uspto.gov or the their public pair which is the p-a-i-r the patent application retrieval system and the pair is a quite extensive way to do a research uh on the what's called the docket uh also called the file wrapper uh the history of that patent application as i said that is not public record until 18 months of that filing following the original application so you can go online you can do some research on your own of course you can hire a professional to do that research for you to see is this company really out there do they actually have a patent that's truly still pending or if they abandon their rights that's all available for you to at least explore on your own first before hiring an attorney and i do recommend you start some of that to get familiar with the process and at least get understanding of where you're at in comparison to this product that you're holding so that's the patent side and i'll do a quick summary again if you're looking at the actual product that it says patented usd the letter d and then a series of numbers that's a design patent and it covers the ornamental features okay it covers just what it looks like if they don't have a d and they've got an eight or nine digit number right there that's a utility pack and they they own the functionality of what that product does not necessarily the way it looks um moving to the trademark piece i want to talk about looking at brands okay so let's look at the lysol example i just gave you looking at a product that has you know a well-known brand like lysol or who knows arm and hammer right those products are likely registered okay because they're well known registration requires that you submit a proof that you're using that name or that logo in commerce right in the in the market and you've got to demonstrate you you're the only one out there using that name for your specific niche or industry and so once you've done that and proven that to the trademark examiner you can get a registration but only then will you be able to put the r with the circle so if you see a brand a logo or even a overall architecture th


Thanks Sharolyn your participation is very much appreciated
- Raymon Phetsanghane


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