Why do I need to conduct a trademark search?

A trademark search helps one find the bad news sooner than the mark that is supposed to be used is already in use and to avoid difficulties further with the mark, one has to make changes to the mark. It helps the potential brand owner shape the strategy to make the journey smoother and hassle-free.

Trademark Jul 27, 2022 0 Add to Reading List

Why do I need to conduct a trademark search?

Introduction

It is essential to understand whether the mark that one is going to use is used anywhere else. The main reason for the trademark search is to reduce bewilderment among the customers.

As the internet is the biggest medium of communication and social interaction, it is important to know whether the mark which is going to be protected is used on the internet.

Even the basic search using the internet search engine will provide a good amount of information regarding the use of marks in the market. The trademark search is something that involves a lot of effort to ensure full protection. It is not at all an easy task to search over such a huge platform of the internet.

Trademark searching companies and trained attorneys are often hired to do this task. It is always advisable to see who else is using the mark before registering it. In this way, the mark user can analyze what changes he/she should make in the mark to make it unique and in this way, the user would know whether the symbol is used anywhere else in the market or anything similar to the mark is used. This process helps in taking the right decisions before registering the mark and investing in it.

This article will discuss why it is important to conduct a trademark search? and what is the process of a trademark search?

The importance of conducting a trademark search

The importance and benefit of a trademark search are that it prevents the user from spending, and provides time and flexibility before the launch of the services and goods. It avoids business distractions, saves from spending money on litigators during disputes and gives insights about potential registration concerns.

All of these can be avoided considering trademark search.

Prevention from spending money and resources on a mark that might not be available.
Provides time and flexibility to modify the mark before initiating the goods and services.
One can avoid the expenses of business distraction associated with forced rebranding.
One can circumvent dispute litigation and court expenses.
Also, it provides insights on how to brainstorm for a mark keeping in mind the potential registration concerns.

Trademarking is the prime step to take before launching a new brand and ensuring the full protection that the trademark user wants for his/her brand. An exact trademark search is very much essential to obtaining strong trademarks.

Besides that, today's date, trademark search has gotten easier and it has been made much more viable for people so there is no reason why any person, who is going to seek a trademark shouldn't start with a strong federal trademark search.

Process for conducting a trademark search

Trademark searches are generally classified into two types.

Knock-out search
Full search

A knockout search is a search of the Federal Trademark register to determine whether the trademark in question is going to fail in future from securing the trademark registration.

A full search is a search that covers all paths for trademark protection in the trademark system that is the object of the search. Searching companies use computer software to operate these searches and categorize the results depending upon the closeness of Mark which is the subject of the search. These search reports come in hundreds of pages and later the attorneys review the result.

One can easily conduct a trademark search online through various sites.

An online trademark search on the Trademark Registry can also be done by using the Indian trademark database link.

There are three types of searches that are allowed for trademark public searches:-

Wordmark
Phonetic
Vienna code

A wordmark search allows the user to retrieve trademarks which use the same word as that of the query, which was entered by the user. The trademark office website provides three query options such as; Start with, contains and match with.

The phonetic search interface searches for same-sounding trademark words. But the trademark office website provides no such information in regards to how the system works at the backend. But it is a very useful search type in terms of providing results having different spellings but similar sounds. But it is not always perfect all the time as it does not give any relevant results during the wordmark search.

Vienna code search applies to visual trademark elements such as logos. A trademark often contains visual elements and it is difficult to search for the figurative elements in a trademark search. Whenever a trademark application containing a visual design is filed in India, it is sent for Vienna codification. It uses a minimum of six letters along with the class.