Despite the fact that a trademark search is the most vital and basic step while registering a trademark, still it is often ignored. While registering for a new trademark for your products that basically explains your thoughts and core marketing strategies, a trademark search must always be considered as relevant and must always be conducted in a professional way. Before finalizing the desired design or trademark (a name, logo and/or tagline), conducting a trademark search will give you the market idea and sneak peek into your competitor’s strategy. And, Yes! It is possible to conduct a trademark search before using a trademark because in that way you will be able to come up with a better and sensible trademark.
In this article, we will summarize the major reasons that state that a trademark search must and always be conducted before using the trademark.
Apart from knowing why you should conduct a trademark search, you might also wish to know how a trademark search is conducted. Follow the link for more information.
Why Conduct a Trademark Search?
Here, are the reasons for why one should always conduct a trademark search before its use:
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To assure non-infringement:
If you are not informative then you have to bear the risk of getting into trouble for the case of infringement. By being informative, we mean that the applicant/owner must have the knowledge about the all the trademarks which are already registered in the same domain. If not, then certainly there may be a chance that you are infringing on someone else’s mark. Therefore, before finalizing or registering a name or logo, it is better to conduct a comprehensive trademark search (meaning a federal, state and common law trademark search), to avoid getting into trouble. This will save your money from paying damages if caught in trademark infringement cases.
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To land a better trademark for your products:
It’s a tough decision to invest your time and money with the intention to protect your products/business, before even starting the trademark process. But, it is the safest way to finalize a particular mark. Do you want to know how to choose a strong trademark? The link will answer your queries.
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To preserve your pocket and clock:
Not only you have to bear monetary loses, but also once caught for infringement, you will no longer hold the authority to use the mark for your products in future. Also, you have to start looking for new marks and follow the same process, just right from the scratch. Not getting into infringement cases, will surely save your money, time, and resources. Let us help you choose the right mark.
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To secure better probability for registration of your trademark:
Once you are done with the trademark search, you will have a better version of your own trademark, since search results will ensure that your trademark is not duplicated or similar to the existing ones. If the USPTO examining attorney finds that your mark matches with the existing ones, then you will be fined with an entire filing fee and will have to restart the entire trademarking procedure.
An important point to note here is that not all marks which are protected by trademark law are registered through the USPTO. So there is even a possibility that registered marks may not be found or listed through TESS. To avoid that, you need to perform a search using other platforms, such as through Internet, online journals, e-books, etc.
For a better trademark search, we at TMReady are ready to help you with our cost-effective services. We have clean access to more powerful tools inside USPTO that may not be open for public disclosure. Better access and domain expertise will definitely bring out narrow search results that will help you to decide a remarkable trademark for your products. You can also download some of our free search sample reports available on our website to help you know us better.