How to check a UK trademark for free
How to check a trademark in the UK yourself?
Before applying to register a trade mark in the UK, it is important to ensure that the mark is not already registered by another business.
If this stage is ignored, you may receive an objection to the registration of your trademark from another owner and, instead of successful registration, end up in a long legal dispute.
What bases need to be checked to be sure that your trademark is free?
To make sure that a mark is free, you need to check not only the database of UK trademarks and applications. A large number of trademarks operate in the UK under the Madrid system. Thus, it is also necessary to check the international register of the World Intellectual Property Organization.
What search engines are there for checking brands?
UKIPO search engine - https://www.gov.uk/search-for-trademark
To check the word part of a trademark, you need to select “Search by keyword, phrase or image”. You will get results of similar trademarks and be able to assess the risks of possible conflicts.
Another way to check a trademark in the UK is to use the service - https://www.tmdn.org/tmview
You will need to specify the UK as your search area. Then you need to indicate the trademark name and classes of goods and services.
Please note that the check will take place simultaneously against the UK trademark database, as well as against the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) database.
You can also use the WIPO database - https://branddb.wipo.int/en/ . You need to select the search “by brand name”.
If you do not specify a country to search, you will receive results for all countries that are in the database.
To get results for the UK only, you need to enter GB in the “Designation country” field. In this case, you will only receive search results for the UK.
You can also use profitmark.uk to check your brand. To check your name, you need to enter it in the trademark verification field.
The advantage of checking a trademark through the profitmark.uk service is that after verification you will receive a report on the verification of your trademark completely free of charge.