Trademark Searches

A trademark search is the most fundamental and essential step before one even thinks about trademark registrations. There are two types of trademark searches:

Each of these searches serves a different purpose. Some businesses might elect not to get a clearance search done, but all should at the very least do a knockout search before moving forward with trademark registration.

Knockout Searches

At the very least, every single brand or business owner must conduct a knockout search before choosing a name for their business, brand, products, or service. A knockout search should also be conducted before a business attempts to register its trademark(s).

A knockout search is the type of search where your trademark is searched and compared to other similar results on the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) database. This search provides you with an overview as to whether there is a trademark pending or already registered on the USPTO’s database that is the same or similar to what the business in question is trying to register.

Knockout searches do not provide a comprehensive list of results. When a business chooses to do a knockout search instead of a comprehensive one there are some unknowns in the process because the results either don’t include common law results at all or there are only a few results.

This means that during the trademark registration process some things might come up that the business or attorney did not know about in advance.

As an attorney, we rely on third-party artificial intelligence (AI) search software to conduct the search. We also supplement those results with our manual searches.

Mariam At Law Professional Corporation uses industry-leading technology to conduct trademark searches.

Comprehensive (Clearance) Searches

Comprehensive or clearance searches are types of searches that generate a lot more results than knockout searches do.

When a business elects to do a comprehensive search, they also get access to common law results and social media results. This means that the search report will uncover many more potential problem areas and red flags than the knockout search.

If a business owner wants to be sure that they can register their trademark, or they just want to be better informed about potential red flags and problem areas for trademark registration, then hiring an attorney to conduct a comprehensive or clearance search is the best way to move forward.

Comprehensive searches give access to data such as the following:

This is How We Work With Our Clients

Now that you know what the trademark search is for and what benefits it provides, contact me to get started with your own search.