Clearing a name before filing
How to search for a conflicting trademark before you file
A name can look free and still belong to someone. The record of who got there first is scattered across federal and state registers, business listings and plain use in the market, so a proper search means opening more than one drawer.
- Business names
- Common law
- Design codes
- Directories
- Domain names
- Federal register
- Marketplaces
- Search engines
- Social handles
- State registers
The main records
Where a conflicting mark can turn up
No single record holds every trademark. Each of these answers a different question about who is already using a name.
- Federal
The USPTO search
The federal database of trademark applications and registrations. Entries show whether a mark is live or dead, and what goods or services it covers.
- State
State trademark records
States keep trademark registers of their own, separate from the federal one. A mark can sit on a state register and appear nowhere in the federal database.
- Common law
Use with no registration
Rights can grow from using a mark in trade, registered or not. A rival of this kind shows up in the market rather than in any register.
- Help
Tools and services
Free databases, paid search reports and an attorney’s clearance opinion differ in how far they reach and in what they can tell you about the result.
The call slip
What to have in hand before the first search
A search is only as wide as the question behind it. These are the details that decide what to look for.
- The name as you would use it
- The exact wording, including any second word that would always travel with it.
- Its near neighbours
- Other spellings, plurals, run-together forms and words that sound the same.
- What you sell under it
- The goods or services, described plainly, along with the things closely related to them.
- The logo, in words
- What the design depicts, since images are indexed by what they show rather than by name.
- Where you trade
- The states and markets you serve now and the ones you expect to reach.
- Translations
- What the name means in other languages, and any foreign word that means the same thing.
Reading a card
Two names can clash without matching letter for letter
An exact-match search misses most of what matters. The test is whether customers could be confused, and that turns on more than spelling.
- Sound
Names that sound alike
Different spellings of the same sound read as one name when spoken aloud.
- Look
Names that look alike
A changed letter or two can leave the overall appearance of a mark much the same.
- Meaning
Names that mean the same
Synonyms and translations can carry the same impression in a customer’s mind.
- Trade
Goods and services that sit close together
The same word can live peacefully in unrelated trades, and collide in neighbouring ones.
A to S
Places to look, in drawer order
Some of these are formal records and some are simply where businesses show up. All of them can hold an earlier use of a name.
Business name records
State lists of registered companies. They record entity names, which is a different thing from trademark rights.
Common-law use
Shops, signs, menus and packaging, wherever a name is used in trade with no filing behind it.
Design codes
The federal index that files logos by what they depict, so images can be searched without a word to go on.
Directories
Trade association lists and industry guides, where smaller firms in one line of work tend to appear.
Domain names
Web addresses in use, which can point to a business that never registered anything else.
Federal register
The USPTO’s record of applications and registrations, searched by word, owner and goods or services.
Marketplaces
Online stores and app listings, where a product name can be well established with no website of its own.
Search engines
A general web search, which picks up uses that no formal list has caught.
Social handles
Account names on the main platforms, often the first public trace of a young business.
State registers
The trademark records each state keeps, usually searched through its own office.