Trademark Clearance Searching

Valid registration of a trademark depends upon no other person having either registered or unregistered rights in identical/similar marks in relation to identical/similar goods/services. Furthermore, some trademark owners independently monitor applications that are filed to see if they conflict with their own registrations.

Thus, it can sometimes be desirable to do a search of existing trademarks and unregistered rights prior to choosing a new brand and filing a trademark application.

UK and Community trademarks can be searched here:

UKIPO Trademark Search Interface

We would, however, caution against trying to use this interface for any full clearance searching as it does have various limitations on how it can search. It does, however, operate very well to find identical and near-identical marks.

UK Trademark Clearance Searching

We normally recommend a full trademark clearance search is performed in order to check that the mark is free for use and registration. The cost of performing a UK clearance search varies depending on the mark and the goods/services to be covered.

If the clearance search reveals that there are potentially conflicting registrations then you could choose not to file an application. This would mean that the intended or ongoing use of the mark will not be brought to the attention of the owner(s) of those existing registrations.

Although we normally recommend a clearance search, an exception to this is if the mark has not yet been used and if the application is not in many classes. It can in those circumstances be more cost-effective to simply file a trademark application and use the official search as a clearance search. The downside of this is that the UKIPO doesn't search for unregistered rights, so even a positive trademark examination report from the UKIPO is not conclusive that the mark is free for use and registration. Whether or not a clearance search is performed may depend on the budget of the applicant.

Overseas Trademark Clearance Searching

As trademarks are registered on a country-by-country basis (the main exception to this being the Community trademark, which covers the whole EU) it can be desirable to perform trademark clearance searching in all the countries of interest prior to choosing a brand name. This is particularly the case if the name needs to be the same in all the countries that are to be traded into.

Clearance searching costs vary greatly between territories, but as a rough guide are normally in the region of £500 per country.

Please contact us for a free consultation or more information on trademark clearance searching.