Before applying to register a trademark with the relevant registration office (e.g., the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office or the EUIPO), it is very important to conduct searches to find out if my trademark is already registered; that is, to find out What trademarks are registered or pending in the territory where you want to register?, and in relation to which products or services. In today's article, we will show you how to know if a trademark is registered.
Trademark attorneys and Official Industrial Property Agents generally use paid software that performs much more exhaustive searches than a person can do to find out if a trademark is registered. In addition, it is important that the interpretation of the results obtained It should be done by a professional with experience in the field, who is familiar with the criteria used by registration offices to compare trademarks and who can devise a protection strategy in line with those results.
But, How can I get at least a rough idea of whether a trademark is registered? We explain it to you in this post.
The importance of prior searches to find out if my trademark is already registered.
The prior trademark searches They are extremely useful for any company or individual preparing to launch a product or service on the market. Knowing whether a trademark is registered is key information.
On the one hand, if my product or service does not yet have a name, Trademark searches will enable me to design and develop a naming and a corporate identity with at least some certainty that I am not infringing on the registered rights of third parties.
On the other hand, if my brand is already developed and I am ready to register it, conducting preliminary searches will allow me to gauge the chances of success of the registration and, where appropriate, reduce the risk of receiving an opposition and thus avoiding delays in processing (in this post We explain what to do if you have received a brand failure).
Using the online tool TMView, completely free of charge.
TMView is a brand search engine Relatively effective for searching registered or applied-for trademarks in the most common countries of interest. Works perfectly as a search engine for OEPM trademarks and EUIPO trademarks. TMView cross-references information with the databases of the world's leading registry offices, and provides generally reliable results for determining whether a trademark is registered.
The search engine is quite intuitive. In the “Advanced Search” panel, we should pay special attention to the following fields:
- Brand name: in this field, we must enter the name we want to search for to find out if that trademark is registered. It is important to make modifications to the searches, particularly if our trademark is complex or consists of several words. If we check the box “Approximate search”The tool will show us results that are more or less similar to our search, not just identical ones.
- Designated territoriesDepending on where we want to know if a trademark is registered, we must indicate one or more territories.
- Trademark offices: the previous field for “designated territories” can be completed with this field. If, for example, we want to search whether a trademark is registered in Spain, we must select “Spain-OEPM” (i.e., Spanish trademarks), “EUIPO” (i.e., European trademarks, as they are valid in Spain), and “WIPO” (as international trademarks can designate Spain or the European Union).
- Brand status: To find out if a trademark is registered, it is advisable to select the “Active” option here if you want to prevent the tool from showing you results for trademarks that have already expired or are no longer valid. Trademarks that have been applied for but not yet registered may constitute grounds for opposition, so it is important to take them into account.
- Products and services: trademarks are applied for according to an international classification of goods and services. In this post We explain how to choose products and services for your trademark application. In the “Products and services” field of TMView, you must select the classes of the international classification that interest you based on the products or services that you intend to distinguish with your trademark. However, keep in mind that some classes may be related to others (for example, class 9 with class 42; class 29 with classes 30, 31, and 43; or class 24 with class 25, among others).
The results obtained can then be sorted by field and even downloaded in Excel or PDF format.
TMView also allows you to perform image searches, by clicking on the camera icon in the search bar, to find out if a logo is registered.
TMView is also a very useful tool for performing other types of searches, such as finding out which trademarks or trademark applications a particular person (a company or an individual) has. To do this, we can use the “Applicant name” field.
So why should I hire a lawyer or an industrial property agent?
It is always advisable to hire a lawyer or to a Industrial Property Agent to conduct more in-depth searches. Professionals in this sector tend to have paid software that perform more detailed searches. In addition, interpret the results It is not always easy. An expert trademark professional knows the criteria of the registration offices and can identify when a similar trademark is more dangerous and when it does not necessarily have to be.
TMView can serve as a starting point for any company or individual who wants to conduct an initial search to find out if a trademark is registered, but the results it provides are not entirely comprehensive. As we say, it can be useful for getting an initial idea, but does not replace professional work by a lawyer or an Industrial Property Agent.
At Bamboo, we are trademark attorneys, so if you need professional assistance to find out whether a trademark is registered, we will be happy to help you. You can write to us without obligation at info@bamboo.legal or through this form.
