A trademark is the symbol or sign of a business that identifies it as a whole. Every business must be unique and different from others so that people can identify it as a different brand. Individuality makes it unique, and performance makes it everlasting. A trademark is the intellectual property of a businessperson that signifies the business and makes it stand out from other reputed businesses. However, you must check whether the mark of your trade has been chosen or not. So, the trademark public search option is available on the IP India Site.  

When does trademark public search need to be done?

Before applying for trademark registration through the government portal, you have to check whether your business logo or trademark is similar to any other business logo or trademark. If your taken mark is similar to any other trade, the registration will be rejected, or the other may object to your mark, claiming that it is theirs. Then, the registration process will be delayed, and you have to clarify the entire thing in front of the trademark register with specific fees. It would be more time-consuming, hazardous, and frustrating for any businessperson. If you want to avoid all these issues, you must visit the IP India portal in the section on trademark public search. Then, you have to select the options mentioned there and search accordingly.

How do you search for a trademark on the IP India Portal?

Before going to search, what should you do? At the very beginning, you have to learn the class of your business and the type of trademark.

Trademark Public Search

During the submission of the trademark registration file on the IP India portal, you must go for a trademark public search. It is the primary but most vital part of activities that you must follow. This may only save you vital legal and financial consequences. This process will ensure that the brand name is unique and you can proceed with applying for the trademark on the portal.

You can search the trademark from the Indian trademark database conducted in IP India. (https://ipindiaservices.gov.in/tmrpublicsearch/frmmain.aspx#) This search will surely tell you whether there is any similarity between your trademark and existing trademarks or recently applied trademarks. However, if you do not have any brand names, you should select one for yourself. Your business may have run for a long time in your locality with a name. You can also keep that name as your brand name. You have to search it online on the government portal and get validated, whether the name is already available.

How do you choose a new name for a brand?

When you have chosen a brand name, you have to consider its uniqueness and how it relates to your business. A unique brand always creates a positive impression in the minds of customers or users.

According to the Trademark Act, 1999, the trademark contains 45 classes, among which 1 to 34 are for goods and 35 to 45 are for services. You can check the class for your product or service.

If you are planning to start a company or business, it is important to consult a legal professional to ensure that the process is going smoothly. If you want to proceed with a new brand and protect it, you must approach trademark registration. A trademark public search is essential before approaching for filing a trademark registration. Follow the steps to search for the trademark, and avoid the headache of facing any legal issues down the line.

It is confusing for a common man to identify the class of goods or services. Some goods or services may fall into two or multiple classes. Go ahead with the product search by using the search term. 

Let’s Learn How Trademark Search Happens:

The public search for a trademark is available at the following link:

https://ipindiaservices.gov.in/tmrpublicsearch/frmmain.aspx# 

The public search for trademarks has been divided into all these segments: 1. Wordmark, 2. Vienna code, and 3. Phonetic.

What do they mean?

Wordmark: This feature needs to understand whether any wordmark is similar to yours.

Phonetic: You can select this option to search for any phonetically similar word in the list.

Vienna Code: The Vienna Code is essential to select when figurative elements of image trademarks are essential to detect.

Let’s Learn Why These Searches are Essential:

1. Wordmark Search

You have to select Search Type: “Word Mark”

When you select “Word Mark” in the Upper Niche, the second layer will automatically select Wordmark, select Start With, and select the word mark you want to search.

Select the section “Class”, and mention the number of classes that you have previously selected from the links mentioned before.

You learned previously that there are 45 classes under the trademark section for goods and services. Class 1 to 34 is for goods and 35 to 45 is for services. Learn the classes of your goods or services and put the number in the box mentioned for CLASS.

Wordmark Research prefix “drop-down” menu selection:

You will get the menus in the dropdown, “Starts With, Contains, Match With”.

When you should select: 

• Start With:

Start With is a dropdown filter that allows you to identify the trademarks that are in the history of the trademark registry, especially the keywords people have searched. This does not show any related trademark in the list of IP India. If you want to learn the conflicted or similar sites of your type, you have to select the next option.

• Contains:

When you select the “Contains” option, you will get some existing trademarks related to your searched match. It may be similar or slightly dissimilar or related to the search. You can learn how unique your trademark is.

• Match with

This menu will show the exact match of the keyword. If there is an exact match, it will show the result. Otherwise, it will not show.

Trademark Search result analysis:

After selecting the options, you have to submit after solving the captcha. At the bottom of the page, you will get a “search” button. Click here and you will get the result related to your selected term or keyword.  You will also get the name and details of other companies or businesses close to your business or similar to your searched term. Otherwise, it will not show any.

When you click on the details, you will get the detailed report on the right side. The application date of the matched business, business type, class, and application number will also be shown in the detailed section.

If no matches are found you can proceed to apply for trademark registration. But our suggestion is to notice the contained trademarks close to your search. You should make it unique, not close to any other brand. It only provides you to be avoided by users because the consumers consider that it is only a duplicate company of others. So, stand alone and make a unique brand. Choose the name of the brand likewise.

2. Phonetic Search

During the trademark search, you also have to keep in mind the phonetic similarity. You can avoid the phonetic similarity of your brand with another brand you have. During the phonetic search, you have to select PHONETIC at the very first niche, “Search Type”.

As soon as you select PHONETIC in the first niche, you will get PHONETIC auto-selected in the next section without any prefix selection like before. You have to select the phonetic term by words so that the search option can automatically select its algorithm for searching it on the database.

Select a minimum of “3 Characters” for phonetic search. Fill out the class of your trademark. You must select one class at a time if you have more than one class trademark requirement.

Solve the captcha code shown over the niche and submit it by clicking on “SEARCH”.

Examples of phonetic similarity are:

• ISHINE and ICE SHINE
• XCEED and X-SEED
• SYCOS and SEIKO
• ENTELEC and INTELLECT
• CRESCO and KRESSCO, etc

In this way, you may get some similarity in pronunciation or nearest to the word type and pronunciation type. If you want, you can avoid this confusion from your brand. When you want to get a unique word and unique pronunciation for your brand, search here and notice how many words are similar to it.

Guide for Phonetic Search

If you want to search for “milk”, the flow of clicks would be like this. Search type> (Phonetic), Phonetic> (Milk), Class> (29). Then, solve the captcha, and click on “Search”. You will get 100 phonetic search results like MILKEE, MILKY, MILKO, MILLAC, MALA" S, M I L K I W A Y, MALIKA, and many others. In each section, you will get the “Details'' option. Click on it to learn more about the entire result of the companies already registered under the trademark.

Notice the status of each section. You will get “registered”, “Abandoned”, “Removed”, “Withdrawn”, etc. You can choose the brand name through the observation over there. After getting the entire details from a Trademark public search, choosing the trademark would be very easy.

If you choose a similar, or close to any other brand, the trademark authority can reject or abandon your project trademark. You should always avoid confusion so that no clash with other trademarks happens to the database of the government portal. Choosing a unique brand always helps you grow your business to the next level.

3. Vienna Code Search

All international companies have to follow the rules of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) where the Vienna agreement is enlisted. Under the Vienna agreement, 29 classes are present. You cannot create a monopoly of the business on all these 29 classes. Let’s discuss the limitations of graphical image or logo selection which is highly highlighted under Vienna codification.

You know there are a lot of scopes to get it rejected. So, you have to keep in mind the Vienna codes and graphical logo selection for your trademark. Vienna code search ensures whether any similar mark is available there. This search must ensure that there are no similar logos or graphical trademarks already present in the database of the government portal (IP India Portal).

You know most of the trademarks come in two forms: one is a wordmark and the other is a graphical presentation/logo/label/ figurative mark.

When you are under the Vienna Codification, you need not think of the Wordmarks. You cannot do it under this section.

When it is a device, the name of a brand might be only on Wordmark or with the imagery of plants, machines, humans, animals, or many other icons or imagery characters. It may also come with a combination of both word and graphical presentation.

It is very difficult to find each logo or image through the search after selecting each of the logos or graphical presentations. This has become easy through Vienna codification from the International Classification of Figurative Elements of Marks. Vienna code contains 29 categories, which are tabulated below:

How to apply for the Vienna Code?

Usually, the Vienna code is a 6-digit code. You can search it yourself to avoid rejection of trademark registration. On the other hand, you can submit your logo or graphical presentation to the IP India portal. They will send it to the Vienna code checks. You have to wait for the report to get it clear. If Vienna codification rejects your graphical presentation for brand identity, your trademark will be rejected. So, you can check it beforehand.

If you want to get a graphical presentation of a man wearing red dinner clothes, you have to categorize it in the following way. You have to consider the human beginnings and place its code first. Then “red dinner clothes” cover the “colors”; and dinner clothes, cover another category where clothes or dresses are mentioned. After finding them in the list, you have to put the codes side by side. In this way, the code will be created, and you have to enter it after selecting Vienna Codification.

After The search, find "Report”

After getting searched, you will find some similarly named companies or brands. You can learn more about it by clicking on the report option at the bottom of the page. Before clicking on it, you have to select any of the results that you have received. When you click on the report, you will get the details of the selected option. If you select the name of another brand, you will also notice it is a Conflicting Mark.

If there is any conflict, you have to see the status of the trademark that is similar to yours. You cannot apply for any trademark, which is currently in active status. If it is inactive status or withdrawn status, you can apply for it.

You will see everything regarding the application date, the first time it was used for a company or business, and more. You can also notice the date of “valid up to.” However, you should avoid all the trademarks which are taken by anyone you are trying to get.

Why is trademark search necessary?

Business people and individuals spend a lot of time making a brand reputed, and well-established, and spreading its name to the horizon. So, it must take into account quite a few considerations and observations. Otherwise, your hard-earned brand may lose its validation in the field of competition. So, in-depth research before taking up a brand name is mandatory. 

If you cannot register the trademark for conflicting names or logos, you will not be able to register the trademark. It will raise the possibility of infringement on your brand name or product. If you use anyone else’s brand name, knowingly or unknowingly, you might be penalized. Hence, a trademark search is mandatory to get clear from your end. It will help grow your business, in short.

Trademark search may help you through the following process:

• Trademark search gives you the entire details of the mark you have taken-whether it is identical or unique.
• You can identify whether your brand name sounds similar to any other company or not.
• You can learn whether your mark falls under the category of prohibited marks.
• If the brand includes a logo, you can check it through Vienna Code Search (International Classification of Figurative Elements). This will inform you whether the logo or graphical presentation is similar to any other company’s graphical presentation of the logo.
• Trademark public search helps you identify the status of your trademark on the current day. This will save time while applying for its registration.
• It will help you increase your business credentials when your trademark is unique and registered. Your brand will get recognition. Hence, a trademark search will save time and money.
• You can grab a new name, your preferred trademark name, or a graphical presentation by avoiding the similarity of business names or phonetic similarity.
• Avoiding the wastage of time helps you invest more time in your business without facing any unattainable situations.

Through the detailed discussion of trademark public search, you got to know how trademark search is conducted, what it means, and how to get clarified about the search result. Once you get a trademark, it will run for the life of your business. A unique and attractive business-oriented trademark will always give you a standout in the competitive world.

If you want to get a trademark registration without any hazard, you can contact Online Legal India. We will help you conduct Trademark public search and all other procedures. Call us now and get your trademark registration-related issues solved.