In a market where your competitors are eagerly waiting to imitate your style and products, it becomes very important to obtain a trademark for your brand. It would safeguard your brand from any unapproved use. You should carefully look at the availability of the trademark before registration, to know whether the brand is obtainable for registration or someone has already registered for the same.
How one can carry out a trademark search?
The process for brand name registration would include Trademark search is a crucial part of the trademark registration process. If it is done with ambiguities then it could be objectionable in the future which might lead to rejection of the trademark application.
Following are the steps which would help you to search for a trademark as given below;
Step one – class search.
The first step in this direction is to choose the right class. There is a classification of the goods and services divided into 45 classes by trademark ministry. One has to select the right class of product and service as suitable to them. It might happen sometimes that the product you choose could be falling under one or two classes, where one can select the best suitable class or can choose all the suitable classes as per the given description of the goods and services. This can be done via the classification of goods and services given on the trademark ministry’s portal.
– As by clicking on the above link, you will be able to see a page as given below;
– As you can see ‘search term’ and the type your product or service’s name and it will show you a related list of classes as given below;
– Hence, a suitable class has to be selected.
Step two – from trademark ministry’s portal ‘search trademark’.
After choosing the class, you will be able to search the availability of the brand name by following the steps given below. Do note that multi-class trademark application will have the different approach.
– Open the trademark portal and you will see the screen given below;
– From the drop-down list given in the search type choose ‘Wordmark’.
– In the first row, you would be able to see another drop-down list in front of the wordmark, from that choose Contains and type your brand name in the given box. For instance, suppose your brand name is ‘Dmart’ then you have to check the word starting with D.
– Against the class, there is a second row where you have to enter the class number in which you want to search the name of your brand and then proceed by clicking on search as shown below;
– You will find a matching of your brand name as shown below;
– If it does not have any identical brand name then it would show a page as shown below;
– Now choose Phonetic from the drop-down list against Search type and the type the brand name and class as given above and search as shown below;
– It is crucial to verify brand name phonetically because it could be that there are no similar brand names but there are brand names that might sound identical. For instance, suppose your brand name is ‘seez’ and there are not identical results found in trademark search but there might be a brand with ‘ciz’ then result would only show you when you search phonetically.
– The ministry will not give approval to the trademark application if it finds phonetically similar brands. Hence, it becomes crucial to check phonetically.
This is how you can do a trademark search on your own and make a decision accordingly. If there is any need to change the brand name you can do it.
In conclusion.
Now, you would be able to see the availability of the brand easily using this guide but it is always advisable to take assistance from the experts. As they possess the technical knowledge about the trademark laws which would help you to make a decision hassle-free. Nevertheless, the sole discretion lies to the august ministry when it comes to granting approval to the trademark application.
