Brand clearance searches – check brand names before you go too far
Brand is the most powerful and enduring Intellectual Property right.
Creating a new brand, new product, service, or business name can be a very time-consuming and potentially expensive process.
The creative branding process is fun and exhilarating but rarely are Intellectual Property considerations included early enough in the process and this can lead to a whole world of pain later.
Better therefore to integrate IP considerations early in the branding process to avoid wasted time and energy.
Most IP experts will advise checking registered business names and trademark attorneys always undertake a thorough search of the national trademark registers to see if the name is already in use.
But all business is now online!
Most of us now research and reference online first before anything else. We use Google, we look at websites and we engage with social media. Hence online name search is crucial for developing a successful brand:
During the brand development stage, a thorough online search should be undertaken..... on Google, of domain name registries and on social media platforms to see whether there is anything confusingly similar or even identical? A Google search shows if there is a website it does not show if there is a domain registered or where the website has not yet been published.
We recently worked with a client where the trademark had already been registered without realising that a Facebook page using the same name and concept was already in existence. Also, that a domain had been registered (with the website launched a few days later). In this case it was difficult to takedown the website or social media page because the client’s trademark had been filed after the website and social page had been created. This meant it was difficult to show trademark infringement.
Brand clearance search service
We search for identical and confusingly similar marks in your goods and services using intellectual property registers, data bases and online sources: search engines, social media platforms, domain name registries, and websites.
