International Trademark Search

Introduction

When you’re starting a new business, the last thing you want is to find out that someone else already owns your trademark. Unfortunately, this happens all too often and can cost you time and money in the long run. Fortunately, it’s easy to avoid these problems by conducting an international trademark search before making any big investments into your new brand. So what exactly is a trademark? And why do you need a trademark search? The answers are below!

What is a trademark?

A trademark is a word, phrase, symbol, or design (or a combination of those things) that identifies and distinguishes the source of a product or service. A trademark can be comprised of words or symbols that are recognizable by consumers and associated with particular products or services. It can also be made up of colors, sounds, and scents as well as other distinctive characteristics. The following is an example of a trademark:

• Trademarked: Coca-Cola®
• Generic: Cola drink

Why do you need a trademark search?

• To avoid legal issues.A trademark search helps to ensure that your mark is not too similar to another registered or pending mark, as it could lead to a conflict and/or infringement. The cost of such an issue is so much more than the price of a search.
• To avoid confusion with other trademarks.It’s also possible that when your prospective customers see two similar trademarks, they may mistake one for the other—and buy from the wrong company! This can be avoided by conducting a comprehensive trademark search before launching your business or product line.

What happens if your trademark has problems?

If you discover that your trademark is not being used as a trademark in the US, or if you’re sure that it’s been abandoned, then you can request cancellation of your application.

The main reason why this is important is to avoid losing your rights to a trademark. Just like filing for a patent and then letting it expire isn’t good for business, so too will it be if you fail to maintain control over what could become valuable intellectual property. The longer something goes unused, the less likely it will be seen as valuable by others who might try to use or sell it themselves—and they may even bring suit against you if they believe they have rights over that mark.

Another issue related to trademarks arises when someone else tries to register one similar enough that consumers will confuse them (i.e., think they’re connected). This situation can lead to not only confusion among potential customers but also lawsuits between businesses trying to protect their brands from being associated with another company’s products or services.

How does the search work?

The most common type of trademark search is an exact match, which uses a graphically-recognizable symbol to determine whether or not a mark has received registration. An exact match search will also include similar words and/or designs, as well as confusingly similar trademarks. For example, if you were searching for the word “iPad” in the United States (US), you would find that Apple Inc., had already registered this name with the USPTO. However, if you searched for a visual representation of that same word—iPad®—you would see that Apple does not own this brand because it does not have a registered trademark symbol next to it in your results.

The second type of trademark search is called an expanded vocabulary keyword search (EKS). This type of search allows users to input any combination of letters and numbers up to three per word without using punctuation symbols like commas between each letter or number added by users when inputting keywords on their own behalf into our system; EKS is especially useful when performing international searches since some languages do not use punctuation marks when writing out words like English speakers do.”

Conducting an international trademark search is important to prevent issues with registration.

When you file for a trademark, you must be sure no one else has already registered the same or similar mark in any other country. While this is called a “search”, it actually includes more than just searching through databases. You will also need to conduct an investigation into how your proposed mark may be viewed by the public and how similar names are being used by third parties who do not have any rights to them. If there are no conflicting marks or previous filings, then your application should proceed smoothly.

The good news is that conducting a proper International Trademark Search can be done online, so there’s no need for expensive agents or consultants when filing. The process is legal, so anyone can do it – but if you don’t know what you’re doing then it might not go as well as expected!

Conclusion

In conclusion, an international trademark search is an important part of the trademark registration process. You should conduct one as soon as possible after you’ve decided on a potential trademark and before filing with national or international authorities. International trademark searches are relatively inexpensive and can save you a lot of time, money, and trouble down the road if they reveal problems such as conflicting marks or generic terms already in use by third parties.