Trademark Search contains the records of all active and inactive trademark registrations and applications. You can search this database for any applied-for or registered trademarks to see if any conflict with your trademark. This search will help you decide whether to apply to register your trademark. Anyone looking to register a trademark will need to search to make sure it is not too similar to an already registered trademark since this can cause a common rejection - "likelihood of confusion."
Trademark searching can be more difficult for keywords as it is more about searching for names and their phonetic equivalents, but it still employs the same principles in designing a structured search. Consider these options when designing your search:
- Field tags: [bi] - basic index, [fm] - full mark, [on] - owner's name, [dc] - design code, [rn] - registration number, [cc] - coordinated class, [ld] - live/dead, and more!
- Boolean logic: AND, OR, NOT, ADJ (adjacent) and SAME (words in same paragraph)
- Truncation: Asterisk* or Dollar sign $ (0 to unlimited non-blank characters) depending on search field, or a question mark ? (exactly one non-blank character)
- Pattern matching: C could be C, K, Q, X (crack, crak, craq, crax) or GH vs TE (light vs lite) and letters or vowel substitutions and so on (lots of options!)...
- Design elements in the mark via the DSCM (Design Search Code Manual): 03.15.05 for example as 03 is the category for animals, 15 is the division for birds, then 05 is the section for turkeys (although birds for eating have their own category!) - just make sure to take the dots/periods out of the 6 numbers when searching
Here are some guiding principles from USPTO for conducting a "thorough search":
- All forms of all distinctive elements of the mark
- Each distinctive part alone
- All phonetic, english and legal word equivalents
- Acronyms and what they represent
- Component parts of individual terms (when needed)
- For retrieving two or more terms that would be found whether together or separately
- Pictorial equivalents for distinctive terms and the opposite
With how complex these can get, the free training on searching from USPTO as part of their Trademark Basics Bootcamp is highly recommended.
Information from the Virginia Tech University Libraries Patents and Trademarks Guide.
