Trademark Clearance Search: What Trademark Databases Should I Be Searching?

In today’s global marketplace, it is a virtual certainty that every brand describing a good or service has a trademark issues.  There is essentially a shortage of available words and increased tension between use of those brands in different countries. 

Our firm is regularly retained to do a trademark availability/trademark clearance search for companies seeking to create a brand, re-brand or launch new products.  For any company that is looking to make a substantial investment in a company name, product name or service name, making sure that there are not any obvious trademark problems is critical.  It will cost you a lot more to re-brand later, not to mention the potential trademark infringement liability, than it is to select  a trademark which has a reasonable chance of holding up in the global marketplace.

What trademark databases should you be searching?  Well, there are too many to list here.  But the obvious ones are the trademark registration database available through the United States Patent and Trademark Office which includes a variety of trademark search options.

Companies should also do a trademark search through the Trade Marks and Designs Registration Office of the European Union which provides a Community trade mark database search tool as well.

Finally, you should do a search with the Canadian Intellectual Property Office which also has a Canadian Trade-mark Database search tool.

Other trademark databases are found at the World Intellectual Property Organization IP Services website.  Where no database is available, the relevant office and contact information is provided.