Guide to Trademark Searching:

Top 8 Tips to Search Registered Trademarks on Trademarkia. Here are the top eight tips to find registered trademarks:

1. Use a "Wildcard" asterisk (*) to find confusingly similar names.

• Place an asterisk (*) on any portion of the name you are searching.
• This will return all results having those letters before or after the asterisk
• Examples :

  Googl* will return all trademarks that start with "Googl".

  App*e will return all trademarks that start with "App" and end in an "e"

  *ahoo will return all trademarks that end in "ahoo"

• Note: If you search for something that has many marks, it will take a few minutes to get your search results.

2. Use a "Wildcard" asterisk (*) to separate words in slogans

• Place an asterisk (*) between words of a slogan you are searching.
• This will return all results having the name.
• Example : a search in Trademarkia for

  Coke*Is*It will result in slogans that have other words between these three words as well.

3. Use a "Wildcard" asterisk (*) in place of special punctuation such as dashes, exclamations.

• Instead of Yahoo! Search for Yahoo*
• Instead of Coca-Cola, search for Coca*Cola

4. Search individual words

• If you are planning to register a trademark that consists of a multi-word phrase (e.g., COCA-COLA, CARE BEAR, STAR WARS) it is always good practice to do a search for each individual word in the phrase. This is true even if there is no spacing between the terms (e.g., ILIKEHATS).
• For example, take the name THUNDERDOG. If you were to just search for THUNDERDOG as-is you would come up with two results for THUNDERDOG and THUNDERDOG FIREWORKS. However, if you were to search for just THUNDER*DOG, you would also see THUNDER DOG.
• Therefore, in order to get a more comprehensive list of results, it is always best to search individual terms in a multi-term word or phrase.

5. Search Misspellings and Alternate Spellings

• Try to think of alternate spellings and/or pronunciations when possible: If a name has multiple spellings and/or similar sounding pronunciations, you can use the wildcard search above to find those alternate names.
• For example, say you want to search for CORN. If you search for *ORN your results would produce names that start with CORN and KORN.

6. Search words different orders

• Search for multi-part names in different orders: Sometimes names can use similar terms, but place them in alternative arrangements.
• For example, say you want to search for SHOP ONLINE. If you search for SHOP*ONLINE, you will find results that include SHOP and ONLINE, where SHOP always comes first. Conversely, searching for ONLINE*SHOP will find names where ONLINE comes first.

7. Read classes and descriptions of similar names.

• There can be multiple trademarks with the same name if they have different classifications and descriptions.
• Read the classes and descriptions for similar names: Even if you have a name that is similar to a prior name, it may be possible to apply for registration if your use for the name is entirely different.
• For example, if you search for PINK ELEPHANT, you will find one registration that uses the name for educational services. In contrast, another registration of PINK ELEPHANT uses the name for convenience stores.

8. Think : Is there a likelihood of confusion?

• Once you have all your search results, ask yourself, "Is there a likelihood of confusion?": In other words, put yourself in the shoes of the customer.
• For example, say you wanted to register the name "PINK ELEPHANT" for a line of study guides and books. If you were a customer and you saw these books, would you think that they came from the same "PINK ELEPHANT" company that offers education services (see 4 above)? If so, then you might want to think of using a different name.
• Although "likelihood of confusion" is not easily defined, eliminating names that you think are confusingly similarly can potentially save your trademark application from being later rejected.