Clients often devote great attention and resources to creating and developing a brand, even engaging consultants for help in brand development. However, clients often fail to consult with trademark attorneys, or they consult them late in the process when it is costly or too late to effectively address the risk that a mark is unavailable or not protectable.
Performing a Trademark Search in Two Stages
- Preliminary, or “knock-out” search, includes the USPTO’s online federal trademark registration and application database and a basic internet search for direct hits. A knock-out search:
- aims to identify marks which are visually, conceptually, and phonetically similar to the proposed mark and that cover the same or similar goods or services;
- helps avoid incurring the expense of a full search if a clear blocking trademark is uncovered; and
- can be useful for choosing from a selection of alternative trademarks or if there are budget issues.
- Full search covers a wide range of additional publicly available information, including databases of state trademark registrations maintained by state trademark offices (although searches of state registrations are sometimes as part of the knock-out search instead) and common law usage, including searches of:
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- the internet;
- business/trade name directories;
- databases of periodicals;
- domain name registries; and
- dictionaries.
Searching and Clearing a Mark Early in the Brand Development Process Enables us to Help Clients Avoid Common Pitfalls
A full search enables us to help clients avoid:
- adopting a weak mark that the client cannot protect, or that requires substantial costs to achieve the desired level of protection;
- spending resources on building goodwill in a mark that the client may be forced to drop because another party has prior rights to that mark; and
- exposure to damages and attorneys’ fees resulting from claims or oppositions by senior rights owners.
We Specialize in Performing Federal Trademark Searches for Our Clients
For more information about our search services, see Trademark Conflict Search. If you have any questions about which type of federal trademark search is right for you, or you would like to work with a skilled and experienced U.S. licensed attorney, contact us for your free consultation. We can be reached at 1 800-651-7301, via email at info@trademarkattorneyslosangeles.com, or through our contact form below.