The first step to protecting your trademark begins with a comprehensive trademark search.
You must conduct a trademark search before you go into the marketplace with your brand name, symbol, logo, tagline, or slogan.
This search will determine whether or not your trademark is available to be registered and used in the jurisdiction you seek registration.
If similar or identical trademarks already exist on the register, the chances of you successfully registering your trademark will become low.
Furthermore, you would have wasted time and money preparing and developing marketing campaigns for a brand that may not be available for trademark registration because you failed to conduct a trademark search.
Here are some reasons why you need to conduct a trademark search
To avoid infringing on another mark
If you start using your logo or name without conducting an adequate trademark search, that is, a federal, state, and common law search, you might end up infringing on another person’s trademark.
Before proceeding with your registration, you must research because ignorance of the law won’t be an excuse if the other party sues you for trademark infringement.
If the other party proves beyond reasonable doubt that your mark ruined their business and caused them to make losses, you might be asked to pay severe damages.
Loss of money, time, and resources
Once you’re found guilty of infringing on another person’s mark, the judge might ask you to stop using your trademark.
This is where it gets worse.
If you already branded your products with the trademark, you’ll need to repackage your inventory, which will result in a massive financial loss for you.
If you’re offering a service with the trademark, you’ll likely lose all your valuable marketing and branding efforts because you’ll have to start from scratch.
This is why you need to carry out an extensive trademark search to ensure that your trademark belongs to you and doesn’t infringe on anyone’s intellectual property.
What do I look for when conducting a trademark search?
As you conduct your trademark research, you’ll need to search for trademarks that confuse your potential customers.
If there’s a trademark in your industry similar to what you want to protect and is operating in the same region that you wish to operate, there is a problem.
Overall, here is the list of things to look out for when conducting your trademark search.
- similar-sounding names
- names that look alike
- design similarities
- similar logo color scheme or font style
Seek professional help
To avoid infringing on another’s mark, you can leverage the expertise of trademark professionals so they can help you conduct a comprehensive trademark search on the mark you want to register, and this is where Trademark Depot comes to your aid.
At Trademark Depot, we have successfully helped many brands like yours register their trademark without any worries.
Our services include in-depth trademark search before preparing any trademark application.
If we believe that your mark is not available for registration or there are problems with securing a successful registration for your mark, you will receive a full refund of any amount you’ve paid.
We won’t file a trademark application if we’re not confident that it will be successfully registered.
Do you have more questions about trademark search or any other aspects of trademarking?
We’d be happy to answer them. Get in touch today. You can contact us anytime by calling 1-833 TEAM TMD (1-833-832-6863) or by sending us an email at [email protected]