A trademark is a unique and recognizable symbol, design or expression that uniquely identifies the source of a product distinguishes it from the other products. The marks which are used to identify the services are usually called service marks. It is very important to obtain the registration of the trademark or the service mark as it helps to protect the mark, symbol, slogan, design etc from being exploited by the competitors. As soon an application for trademark registration is filed TM symbol can be attached to it and once it gets registered then the owner can affix the symbol of R along with the trademark. These symbols provide a great value and protection to the brand.
It is very important for the owner of the trademark to run a trademark search before applying for the registration of the mark. As no registration can be sought in case any similar trademark is already registered or applied. A trademark search can be facilitated through various trademark websites, directories, and databases. The owner of the trademark can make a trademark search on the database provided at the official website of the trademark.
Trademark search database
Trademark search database contains all the data like trademarks applications submitted to the Trademark registrar in India including registered, applied, objected and expired trademarks. It is present on the website of the Comptroller General of Patent Designs and Trademarks and can be used by both professionals and non-professionals to do a trademark search. Searching the trademark on the trademark search database will assist the applicant in determining that whether any similar trademark already exists or not. In case any similar mark exists then he can look for some unique trademark which will save his time and cost.
Basis for trademark search
Wordmark Search- Wordmark or a logotype is a distinct text-only typographic treatment of the name of a company, institution, or product name used for purposes of identification and branding. It can be used to determine the existence of similar Wordmark. Wordmark search can be performed using any prefix method “Starts With“, “Contains” or “Match With“.
Phonetic Search- This search will enable the user to identify the trademarks which are phonetically similar as it is difficult to get the phonetically similar trademark registered.
Vienna code search- This search is mainly performed to find the similar device mark, and you will have to enter the six-digit Vienna code in corresponding to "Vienna code", and select your relevant class. After the search, the result table would show all the mark containing the device.
Procedure for running trademark search on IP India website is as follows-
The procedure for making a trademark search is very simple thus a layman can also conduct a trademark search very easily. The procedure for conducting a trademark search is as follows-
1. Go to the official website www.ipindia.nic.in.
2. Select the option of the related link under the Head Trademarks. From there select the option of public search.
3. Select the one option from the drop-down list provided in front of wordmark. Further, add the words that you want to register. Also, enter the class in which you want to register your trademark. After adding all the details click on search.
4. In case the name entered by you is unique then the screen reflecting no records found will appear. Thus the applicant can apply for the same.
However, in case the name was chosen by the applicant already exists then he is required to select another name.
