Trademark Search

 

An important aspect of securing ownership of a brand identity is the trademark search. A trademark search plays an important part in securing ownership over your brand’s identity.

 

Why Conduct A Trademark Search?

A trademark search involves checking whether the name you intend to use is available for use before you adopt a name or launch your product or service.

Clearing a name for use is important to ensure that you do not infringe on the rights of another trademark owner.  It is the way to determine whether your proposed name is available for use without infringement risks. A search is essential before proceeding to register a mark if you want your registration to be effective.

It also helps you avoid the risk of having to rebrand. Rebranding may entail recalling the product and changing all your marketing materials. Product recalls and rebranding might be forced on you years after you have already built up your business. It invariably involves considerable expense and exposes you to a claim in damages or to account for your profits. So, a trademark search is a small outlay for the considerable risk management it delivers.

• There are many different types of trademark search.
• The more extensive the searching, the more time consuming.
• You need to balance the cost of searches against the risk of a failed trademark application.
• Unlike company or domain names where a slight adjustment of spelling may enable a desired name to be registered, a name you use as a trademark must not be like someone else’s mark. There must be no possibility of consumer confusion. 

 

Why search before using a business name?

A search enables you to find out whether a name is available to you to lay claim to. So, it’s an important way to check that the name you intend to use is available to use before you launch your product or service or apply to register a mark.

Clearing a name for use, is important because if you use someone else’s brand you risk having to rebrand. This may entail recalling the product and changing all your marketing materials. Rebranding might be forced on you years after you have already built up your business and become reliant on its income. It invariably involves considerable expense and exposes you to a claim in damages or to account for your profits. So, a trademark search is a small outlay for the considerable risk management it delivers.

 

Types Of Searches

You might do an exact same name search yourself to see what names are registered. However, that’s not enough because it’s necessary to also check whether similar names are registered.

What’s known as an “identical search” is the minimum search we recommend you have before adopting a name.

Depending on your attitude to risk, you might want to do more extensive searches. It all depends on the name you have chosen, the nature of your products and services, and your plans for growing the business (for example, will you sell online into all countries?)

Different levels of searches should be conducted depending on the complexity of your needs.

Being clear about your marketing plans before searching makes it more possible to assess which type of search to commission.  For example, as there are 27 countries within the EU, and each country has its own trademark registration system, an EU trademark search might need to include a search of each of the individual country registers not just a search of EU trademarks.

So, to sum up:

• There are different type of trademark searches available.
• The very least we recommend is an identical search. This search will identify some similar names that may be registered but not all.
• The more extensive the search is, the more time it takes to determine availability.
• For a successful approach, you need to balance the cost of searches against the risk of a failed trademark application.
• Unlike in a company or domain names, where a slight adjustment of spelling may enable a desired name to be registered, a name you use as a trademark must not be similar to someone else’s mark.

Other points to bear in mind is that:

• A logo search is useful if you are registering a logo although the text element of the logo will need a separate word search.
• A common law trademark search is advisable if the scale of your operations is such that the consequences of a failed trademark application would be severe. A common law search may discover someone with an earlier unregistered right which could pose problems for you.

 

What’s next?

Make an enquiry to find out how we can help you to search the trademark registers and apply to register a trademark.

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