Free Trademark, Domain, and Logo Search Tools on Trademarkia

I’m always happy to find new trademark search tools, especially free search tools that can be used as an alternative to the Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS).  Professional trademark searchers are able to easily navigate TESS due to their years of experience utilizing both the command line and search form interfaces, but less experienced searchers conducting a preliminary trademark search may find the TESS interface a bit difficult to use.  We’ve looked at one alternative, TMQuest, a free US trademark search tool created by Minesoft. I’ve recently come across another free trademark search site, Trademarkia,  that also allows users to search for domain names, logos, trademarks currently published for opposition, brand ideas, and the option to search social media networks for brand names.

After the jump, we’ll look at the search features of Trademarkia and see how the site compares to TESS!

Registration and Search Features

Trademarkia is a free online trademark search portal, created by by Abhyanker P.C., a US-based trademark filing law firm. According to Trademarkia’s “About Us” section, the site searches “more than 6 million trademarked logos, names, and slogans on the Internet.”  Users can register to create a free account, but all search features can be used without any registration.  Users can register directly on the website or sign in through Facebook. Registered users have access to a “My Trademarkia Account”, where they can view unfinished logo design orders, unfinished trademark orders, unfinished office action orders, and finished orders.

On Trademarkia, users can choose from a number of search options (organized under 6 tabs on the main search form):

• Name – Search by trademark name in a keyword search form.
  •  An advanced search form is available for this option (search by name, filing date, category, “goods & services”, and status).
  • An international search form is also available.  Users can select a country (Europe, Canada, France, Germany, UK, Australia, Mexico, Spain, Italy, and Japan) and enter a phrase or term in the keyword search form. It is unclear where the data is obtained from for these international searches, but the system most likely utilizes free data sources from the selected country’s intellectual property office.

The advanced search form for the "Names" search option.

• Domain – Search by domain name. Available domain names can be purchased.
• Logo – Search by company name or logo description.
  • An advanced search form is also available for this option (search by logo description and legal status).
• Fights – Search for U.S. trademark applications in their 30 day opposition window. Users can filter by number of days left in the opposition window and view lists of “biggest bullies,” “biggest hecklers,” and “biggest victims” and rankings of top companies, law firms, and attorneys. For a fee, users can file an extension to oppose a trademark or select to oppose the trademark (for an hourly fee).
• Brand Idea – Type in a keyword to generate branding ideas for a domain, trademark, or logo. The domain and trademark idea generator options didn’t appear to function during testing.  The logo idea generator created text images (based on the input keywords) in varying fonts and colors.
• Social Networks – Check the brand, product, or user name on social media sites.  After entering a keyword or phrase, the results will display which social media platforms are free for you to register a brand name and which sites already have that brand username registered.

Results for the search of a brand name on multiple social media sites.

Search Results

Search results for trademark name and logo searches generate a list of relavent USPTO trademarks. From the search results for the mark name, users can create a free status alert update that will email the user “the latest trademark status change.” Both the name and logo searches provide thumbnail views of the trademark image (when available), and users can select the result to view a full record of all available USPTO data on the trademark/logo.

The search results for a "Names" trademark search.

Within the full record, users can:

• Read or write reviews of the trademark.
• Create an email alert on status changes.
• Add the full record page to the “favorites” section of the browser.
• View documents related to the trademark (by searching directly in the Trademark Document Retrieval (TDR) system on he USPTO website).
• Search the trademark name on social media sites.
• Start the trademark filing process.
• View costs to protect a trademark internationally.
• Create a custom logo design ($99).

Conclusion

Despite the slick interface on Trademarkia, professional trademark searchers will still probably prefer to use TESS, since TESS has a much more flexible search interface (through the command-line search form) where users can craft complex search queries.  Even the advanced  search forms on Trademarkia only offer a limited number of fields and criteria for limiting the search.  Trademarkia does offer some interesting search and monitoring features, such as the free status alert option, the search for trademarks in their 30 day opposition window, and the social network trademark search.  Casual searchers who are scoping out possible trademark/brand creation or promotion options may find Trademarkia useful for an initial search.  A professional trademark search is still the best option for a comprehensive or global trademark search that will be utilized for decision making or legal purposes.

 

Do you know of any other free trademark search tools?  Let us know in the comments!

This post was contributed by Joelle Mornini. The Intellogist blog is provided for free by Intellogist’s parent company Landon IP, a major provider of patent searches, trademark searches, technical translations, and information retrieval services.

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