Trademark search meaning [Fact-Checked]

Last updated : Sept 29, 2022

Current : 322

What is trademark search?

Trademark Search provides the details of any similar and existing brand name, logo and a list of prohibited trademarks and helps you avoid any potential conflicts with existing trademark applications or registered trademarks and breach of intellectual property rights.

What trademark means?

A trademark can be any word, phrase, symbol, design, or a combination of these things that identifies your goods or services. It's how customers recognize you in the marketplace and distinguish you from your competitors. The word â€œtrademarkâ€ can refer to both trademarks and service marks.

Is a trademark search necessary?

Doing a trademark search prior to using a mark commercially is essential for developing a successful brand strategy and can save brand owners valuable time and money in the long run.

How do you complete a trademark search?

You may conduct a free online search of the USPTO database at the Public Search Facility (Madison East, 1st Floor; 600 Dulany Street, Alexandria, Virginia) between 8:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. USPTO personnel may not conduct trademark searches for the public. Private trademark search firms will conduct searches for a fee.

What does a trademark protect?

A trademark is a sign capable of distinguishing the goods or services of one enterprise from those of other enterprises. Trademarks are protected by intellectual property rights.

How do I trademark a name for free?

You can not register a trademark for free. However, you can establish something known as a "common law trademark" for free, simply by opening for business. The benefit of relying on common law trademark rights is that it's free, and you don't need to do any specific work filling out forms, etc.

Can I trademark my name?

You can trademark your name if it has business or commercial value. Trademarking your name gives you an additional brand and keeps others from using your name. To trademark your name you must meet specific requirements with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

What is importance of trademark?

A registered trademark is a symbol, logo, word, slogan, or company name. It protects your status and stops other businesses from trespassing on your intellectual assets. Trademark registration online is an easy process.

What are the types of trademark?

Product Mark. Product mark is a mark that is used on a good or on a product rather than on a service.
Service Mark. Service mark is similar to the product mark but a service mark is used to represent a service rather than a product.
Collective Mark.
Certification Mark.
Shape Mark.
Pattern Mark.
Sound Mark.

How much does a trademark search cost?

A reasonable trademark search costs from $500-$1500 or more. The search would include an attorney analysis of the results at this price. Many trademark attorneys have the trademark search in their overall trademark package.

What is the reason for search of trademark before registration?

Benefits of conducting a Trademark search before registration. Following are the advantages of conducting Trademark search: It prevents you from spending resources and money on a mark that may not be available. It provides you with time and flexibility to modify your mark before you launch your product/service.

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 long does it take to do a trademark search?

Depending on whether you decide to consult an attorney, a trademark search can take anywhere from one day to a few weeks.

How do trademarks work?

A trademark is generally a word, phrase, symbol, or design, or a combination thereof, that identifies and distinguishes the source of the goods of one party from those of others. A service mark is the same as a trademark, except that it identifies and distinguishes the source of a service rather than goods.

How do I trademark my logo?

How to Trademark a Logo. A unique logo can be trademarked by registering it with the USPTO. Anyone can apply online on the USPTO website if the business for which they're authorized to file is principally located inside the U.S. If based outside the U.S., a patent attorney will be required to make the filing.

Who needs a trademark?

Business owners that have a distinctive business name, motto, logo, slogan, symbol to represent their product, service or business may want to consider registering it as a trademark from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, or USPTO, a federal agency, and/or a similar state agency.

Which is better trademark or copyright?

Copyright protects original work, whereas a trademark protects items that distinguish or identify a particular business from another. Copyright is generated automatically upon the creation of original work, whereas a trademark is established through common use of a mark in the course of business.

Can you buy a trademark?

Question: Can you purchase a trademark? Answer: Yes, you can purchase a trademark from another person or entity. Trademarks are a form of intangible property that can be sold and bought, just like real estate.

How do I know if a business name is trademarked?

You can search for federally registered trademarks by using the free trademark database on the USPTO's website. To start, go to the USPTO's Trademark Electronic Business Center and choose "Search trademarks." Then follow the instructions you see on the screen.

Do I need to trademark my business name?

There's no legal requirement for you to register a trademark. Using a business name can give you 'common law' rights, even without formally registering it.

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Comment by Stacey Wickson

hi i'm richard byrne in this video i'm going to show you how you can search the u.s trademark database to see if a word or term is actually been trademarked i'm doing this because this company called tozel which used to be a service that offered a great back channel tool it was hosted by a gentleman in germany and it was a nice little tool unfortunately the tool was shut down and the domain became available and another company bought it and is now threatening a bunch of bloggers including myself for using the word tozle in any kind of context online which is completely bogus claim they're claiming that they own the trademark turns out they don't actually own the trademark so here's how you can do a search go to the u.s trademark electronic search system known as test you can go here and do a quick search so let's do a search and we're going to search right now for something that i know is trademarked like hulk hogan right every child of the 80s remembers hulk hogan let's do our query there it is a whole bunch of variations on hulk hogan that are trademarked you can see that one is live that trademark is now dead all right that one is expired as well that one's live so let's go and see and there's the serial number the registration number let's go and look at it right and we can find out all kinds of information about it like who's the attorney of record for that when it was when it was registered all kinds of great information about this you can see where it's been used now let's go back and let's do another search and let's say we want to search for one like the word tosl which this company claims they have trademarked let's go and do a search nothing it is not actually a registered trademark so that's how you can check to see whether or not a term has actually been trademarked or not and if you're a blogger like me who's been harassed by this company feel free to send them this video or tell them to take a flying leap as always for more tips and tricks like this please check out freetech4teachers.com or subscribe to my youtube channel

Thanks for your comment Stacey Wickson, have a nice day.
- Lynda Vanderwal, Staff Member

Comment by Noel

how to do a trademark similarity search this video is about a trademark search before launching a new product or a new company name it is advisable that you do a trademark search before launching the new product or company name to avoid conflict with earlier similar trademarks so for example if you want to launch a new company called pmw for cars then you can find out with a trademark similarity search that there is an earlier trademark BMW so maybe you find another name Oh him offers a really nice tool to do similarity search is called TM view a link in the show notes not only the EU member-states but also other countries such as the US and Korea are contributing their data into this handy database so you can click on advanced search and then you could enter the name of your new product you can also limit your search with many other search criteria such as the classes for goods and services or for example you can could also limit the search with the trademark offices that you would like to search and many other criteria let's use an example so we want to launch a new line of t-shirts under the name of marimba so we enter the name marimba and then we want to also find similar trademarks so we click on fuzzy search and then we want to limit the search to class 25 which is clothing and shoes and headwear then we also want to search in class 18 which is bags sometimes considered similar to clothing and then maybe we also want to search 14 which is jewelry which is also sometimes considered similar to clothing and then we can hit search so this gives us all the found similar trademarks that are in this database from all over the world all EU countries but also many other sources you can of course browse these or skip through these results let's go to the last page where we find all the second last page I think where we find the marimba results here we find the first two trademarks marimba from Mexico that might not be our core market so we look further and then we see wala a trademark marimba from Spain in class 25 for clothing and for probably for retail services in class 35 so we can click on that and then we can see all the details of this trademark and if we wanted to we can copy and paste a URL to send it to friends or to clients or to colleagues we can also send this whole search to a client or friend or colleagues within the company by hitting this symbol and then we can just copy and paste this URL and that will lead everyone to the exact same search that we configured if you are not a licensed attorney or patent attorney you are liable for what you do with a search so if you want to limit your liability maybe you want to give the search out to a patent attorney because when the patent attorney gives you his or her opinion about the search then the patent attorney will be liable for the opinion and if you run into trouble later on then you can be a little safer also the patent attorney has a deep knowledge of the case law surrounding trademarks so he can easily tell you whether certain trademarks will be considered similar by courts or whether certain goods and services will be considered similar and you can get a much better and more reliable impression of whether you are named that you want to use in the future as safe or not please feel free to like this video post your questions in the comments and share this video with your friends subscribe to my channel and as always reap your ideas

Thanks Noel your participation is very much appreciated
- Lynda Vanderwal

About the author

Lynda Vanderwal

I've studied civil engineering at Broward College in Fort Lauderdale and I am an expert in contemporary philosophy. I usually feel geeky. My previous job was industrial hygienist I held this position for 20 years, I love talking about aquascaping and glass blowing. Huge fan of Jack Black I practice uneven parallel bars and collect stamps.

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