Conduct a Trademark Search - Strengthen Your Brand
Before you define your brand, gather information about your competitors. A trademark search prevents the accidental infringement of registered trademarks.
Strengthen Your Brand with a
Trademark Search
When you have a business idea, you may wonder how you can patent and trademark your invention and brand. Before you write your message about what makes your company unique and begin marketing your ideas and inventions, you want to protect your intellectual property.
A trademark search ensures no one else is using a similar name, logo, or slogan. Having a brand similar to a competitor’s can increase the likelihood of confusion amongst consumers. They might buy another brand of merchandise, thinking it they are buying yours if the logos or names are similar.
You can trademark your company name, logo, slogan, and even colors related to your brand. Save time and money by enlisting the help of a trademark attorney to assist with a trademark search before you submit your trademark application to the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
When Should You Begin a Trademark Search?
Save time and money by starting your trademark search when you first conceptualize your company name, brand, logo, slogan, and even the colors and designs you'll use to promote your company.
Before you write your message, you want to know what similar companies' marketing messages and brands look like, including:
- Words
- Colors
- Phrases
- Trademark sounds associated with their products
- Product names
- Logos and imagery
Choosing distinctive colors, words, and logos can help prevent the likelihood of confusion between your brand and competitors’.
What Does a Trademark Attorney Look for in a Trademark Search?
A trademark attorney can save you time and money by looking for trademark applicants and trademark users that may be similar to yours. A trademark search does not just investigate one type of trademark holder.
Your intellectual property law firm will search for:
- Federally registered trademarks
- State registered trademarks
- Common law trademarks, which have not been registered but are commonly accepted and used by a specific company
Following this intellectual property review (IPR), your trademark attorney can help you write your message and modify your logo, brand, or slogan to ensure it is distinctive enough to avoid the likelihood of confusion in the marketplace.
Going through this process before you file your trademark application can save time and money and improve the odds your trademark will be approved by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
How Do I Do a Trademark Search?
Trademark applicants or their intellectual property attorneys can begin a trademark search through the Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS), the USPTO database of registered trademarks.
The trademark database lists all:
- Former U.S. trademarks
- Current U.S. trademarks
- Trademark applicants who filed through the USPTO
The Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS) allows you to search for trademarks with common elements or a specific trademark. You can search through this USPTO database in any one of the three ways.
Basic word mark search – Search only for specific words, serial number, registration number or owner’s name.
Structured word and / or design mark search – This expanded search allows more freedom to set your search parameters.
You can search for trademarks that:
- Look or sound similar to yours
- Have similar design characteristics or similar meanings
This expanded search uses algorithms to help you use the trademark database to find trademarks that:
- Match your term exactly but have additional characters before or after your word
- Sound like yours but are spelled differently
- Match yours but with specific letters or characters substituted (such as using a heart in place of the letter "O")
You can also search for specific designs by referencing the design search code manual. For instance, to search for a five-pointed star in a logo, slogan, or brand name, you’d search for marks using design search code 01.01.03. Each number in the design search code represents a different category of design elements.
This robust search engine has all the same features of the expert-level free-form word and/or design mark search but prompts users with guidance to build their search.
Free-form word and / or design mark search – With all the features of the structured search, the free-form search adds flexibility for trademark experts, including law firms and intellectual property attorneys, to perform searches more efficiently.
How Do I Find Out If a Name Is Trademarked?
How Can a Trademark Attorney Help?
The Patent Professor® can help you navigate the Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS) more efficiently and effectively than you might be able to do on your own.
Extensive knowledge of the design search code manual enables The Patent Professor® to conduct a more thorough search of the trademark database, ensuring no other federal registered trademarks resemble yours.
Additionally, a trademark search doesn't end with searching the USPTO database. That trademark database only covers registered trademarks (past and present) and trademark registrants on the federal level.
A trademark attorney will:
- do a thorough international trademark search
- search state and local trademark databases
- search online for "common law" trademarks, or those that aren't registered but are widely used and recognized
Filing Your Trademark Application
Once you've conducted thorough trademark searches and determined your trademark is unique, you can file your trademark through the Trademark Electronic Application System.
You can opt to use:
- TEAS Plus
- TEAS Standard
Each choice has different associated fees and payment, plus different requirements.
After you’ve filed your trademark application, your trademark attorney can check application status through TSDR, or Trademark Status & Document Retrieval System.
Rely on a Trademark Attorney to Protect Your Intellectual Property
Do-it-yourself intellectual property review (IPR) toolkits may not provide the thorough search required to ensure your trademark is unique, distinctive, and recognizable. A good trademark should also be broad in scope to protect your core business and accommodate growth.
Count on The Patent Professor®, a board-certified intellectual property attorney and law firm, to help you strengthen your brand. Call (877) 731-5667 now.
Conduct a Trademark Search
The Patent Professor® can help you find out if you can trademark your brand before you file the application. Call (877) 731-5667.