Trademark availability

Have you found a suitable trademark? Before you actually use and register a (new) trademark, you must first check its availability. If you do not, you may find yourself infringing another trademark right. And that could have direct consequences. Of course, you can search your trademark or trade name with Google, but this is not enough to assess all the risks. What you need, is a trademark register search.

Your own trademark search

To make sure you do not infringe other trademark rights, you need to check if a trademark is available. It will help you avoid having to pay damages, or having to withdraw your trademark from the market, for instance.

Of course you can search your name with Google to check if the trademark is already being used. You can also check your trademark against the list of registered tradenames in the Chamber of Commerce (the commercial register). While this is certainly a good start, it is not a guarantee that your trademark is available.

To make sure you do not infringe a trademark with pre-existing rights, you need to carry out an in-depth search of the trademarks register. We can help you with this.

Trademark search by Onel

There are two types of trademark searches. An identical search, and an availability search. The identical search merely gives an indication of the availability. We check the register for identical and nearly identical trademarks. That’s the first step. In an availability search, we will also look at similar trademarks, which can also lead to an opposition. The detailed search will reveal if your trademark is available for registration.

And then what?

Based on the outcome of the search, Onel will advise you on the availability of the trademark. Hopefully, the trademark is free for use and registration by you. In some cases, there may be minor obstacles. Usually, any risks found can be reduced or solved altogether. We will discuss the various options with you. If the proposed trademark poses too many risks, you will need to find an alternative one. That would be unfortunate, but is still better than having to find a new trademark after you have spent a lot of time, energy and funds on marketing your trademark.

Foreign markets

If you want to explore foreign markets, it is important that you also check the availability of your trademark in the country where you wish to expand. Trademark searches are possible worldwide. We offer special search arrangements for the most common countries. If you would like to know more, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Better safe ….

Better safe than sorry – do not use your trademark until you know for sure that it is available. You wouldn´t be the first to have to change a trademark following a claim based on a pre-existing trademark. It’s a waste of money, time and energy. A market survey will help you avoid this.

Apply for an identical search now and get off to a good start!