Thread: How to check trademark ?

Is there a way to check on trademark before the buyer buy the domain name? I thought there is a place to chech online for the company names .. ??

Hi GetItNow, Just to be clear, are you talking about an Indian domain? Also, you talk about checking "company names" - do you mean checking trademarks that have been filed by third parties?

yeah I want to know the place to check on to see if the name of company is registered trademark

(1) As mentioned here, you have to pay a fee to conduct a search of the Indian trademarks database (many countries provide this information for free). Update: see new post below for details of free but limited online search service.
Update #2: Service is no longer free.

What's still not clear is whether anyone can carry out an online search, and whether you need an Indian bank account to do this. Recently, I wrote to TMR India to see if they could answer some of my questions. Unfortunately, I did not receive a response.

(2) Another thing you can try and do is to find out if there are common law rights attached to the name. For example, conduct a search of India's yellow pages, news sites, local search engines etc to see how frequently the name comes up.

(3) Finally, using Google, try the tip below (to see if the name was advertised in India's trademarks journal):

site:www.patentoffice.nic.in/tmr_new/tm_journal/ [insert name]

For example, if you insert:
site:www.patentoffice.nic.in/tmr_new/tm_journal/ Apple Computer
you will see that Apple applied for the trademark .MAC

Another example, if you insert:
site:www.patentoffice.nic.in/tmr_new/tm_journal/ Google
you will see that Google Inc applied for the trademarks GOOGLE and ORKUT.

Very important: the search of the trademarks journal is NOT a conclusive test to find out if there is a registered trademark. It is simply one small thing you can do to obtain a bit of trademark information. For a conclusive answer, you need to perform a full search of the trademarks register as mentioned in my first paragraph.

Via the examples shown at (3) above, you *might* get the info you're looking for from a trademarks journal, but you might not. A pending trademark won't show up in your search results if it hasn't yet been advertised in the journal. Also, some journals won't show up in your results if they haven't been indexed by the search engines (certainly, the really old journals might not be indexed, and/or they might not even be in an electronic format).

GetItNow, if the domain in question involves a very high amount of money, then you should definitely conduct a full search of the trademarks register to ensure there is no trademark issue involved.

I apologise if the above is double dutch. If so, let me know and I will try and explain more clearly.

Very helpful thanks! I will sticky this thread.

I know that peoples' eyes probably glaze over when reading Ceres' post, but avoiding legal issues is good for your health and wealth

Originally Posted by Jeff

I know that peoples' eyes probably glaze over when reading Ceres' post, but avoiding legal issues is good for your health and wealth

Yes Jeff, I'm sure some peoples' eyes will glaze over my post, but nevertheless I decided to click on the "Submit Reply" button.

its really really helpful..thanks ceres..

UPDATE: I found a site where you can conduct a free online search of India's trademark register. However, the free search only covers trademarks issued from 2006 onwards. You'll need to register with the website. .
UPDATE #2: this service is no longer free. You pay US$5 for 5 searches.

Please note: For a comprehensive search, you should order a search report from an Indian Trademark Attorney. You can order such a report for $10 or Rs.400 per mark per class via the tmpsearchers.com website. Also, I vaguely recall someone mentioning on INForum that Mitsu.in offers trademark services (but I don't know if they carry out trademark searches).

I tested out the free search and it works well. For example, I entered "Blackberry" and the results revealed the following trademarks:

BLACKBERRY UNITE! (2008-10-01)
Blackberry Pearl (2007-12-01)
RELIANCE BLACKBERRY (2007-03-01)
BlackBerry (2006-09-01)
Blackberry (2006-09-01)
BlackBerry (2006-09-01)
BLACKBERRY (2006-09-01)
BlackBerry (2006-09-01)
BLACKBERRY (2005-02-2 [note: a 2005 trademark showed up in the results]

I did another test search for "KFC" and it revealed the following trademarks:

KFC (2008-07-16)
KFC (2008-03-16)
KFC BEARING (2006-06-01)
KFC (2006-04-16)

If it's a design mark, you'll be able to view the image.

Thanks - that's very helpful!

You can find the World Intellectual Property Organisation's Trademark Database Portal here: Arbitration and Mediation Center - Trademark Database Portal.

As has been stated, there does not appear to be any public database on which you can make a proper search of the Indian Trade Marks Register.

....... our website at VeryMark Trade Mark & Copyright Attorneys has information on trade marks, copyright, design rights, and domain name conflicts.