How to do a trademark search for free?

What is a trademark?

A trademark is an identifiable mark, design or even a word which identifies a product or a service of a particular business.As soon as you have applied for the trademark, you can use the ™ symbol next to your name. And after the trademark registration is complete can you use the ® symbol. Both these symbols give your brand great protection and value in the market.

Before going for a trademark registration, you need to do a trademark search to check whether the name or the logo you’ve chosen for your brand or something very similar to your brand name/logo has already got a trademark.

In case a similar name/logo is found, it might be difficult for you to get a trademark.

Via a trademark search, various trademark websites, directories, and databases are searched to determine the chances and probability of success in getting your name/logo trademarked.

Trademark classes

Before doing a trademark search, you’ll need to mention a ‘class’ under which you’ll file your trademark.

Classes are a categorization of goods and services. Class 12, for example, reads “Vehicles; apparatus for locomotion by land, air or water”. Class 25 is “Clothing, footwear, headgear”. Class 41 is “Education; providing of training; entertainment; sporting and cultural activities” and so on.

Getting a trademark for each ‘class’ of goods will require a separate trademark application.

You can get the full “Trademark Classes” listing here.

Doing a trademark search yourself

A trademark search is a simple process which even a layman can do.

Many lawyers charge a hefty fee for doing a trademark search.

To stop that from happening to any budding entrepreneur, we’ve brought out this one-minute video which tells you about how to go about doing a trademark search.