The Patent Office has upgraded its web site to allow visitors to search on the Trade Mark text. The move will make it significantly easier to find identical marks.
Until now it has only been possible to search for specific marks on the Office web site by their application numbers. It is now possible to find information about existing marks by searching on the mark text or the proprietor’s name.
Trade mark protection is important for any company with a recognisable identity. With markets becoming increasingly competitive and companies frequently offering very similar products, it is important for businesses to make themselves and their products recognisable from their competitors. Companies use their brands to achieve this distinctiveness.
A trade mark is any sign which can distinguish the product or services of one trader from another and can be represented graphically. Trade marks include words, logos, three dimensional shapes and sometimes sounds and smells, and for high profile companies can be worth millions or even billions of pounds to multi-national companies like Coca Cola, Microsoft, Unilever and Nestlé.
However, while the new service will make it possible for anyone to do an initial search to find identical clashes with existing marks, carrying out trade mark searches is a skilled job. The Patent Office still recommend that anyone who wants to apply for a new mark should first contact its Search and Advisory Service or a Trade Mark agent for expert guidance. For instance, you would never be able to register ‘Koka Kola’ as a mark because it’s too similar to the famous brand but you would not automatically find Coca Cola on an internet-based trade mark search.
In addition, many words or phrases can never be registered as trade marks, for example because they are descriptive of the goods or services. So the fact that someone does not find a conflict on the database does not necessarily mean their mark is registerable.
The Patent Office Trade Mark search service can be found at http://www.patent.gov.uk/dbservices/tm.html.