What is the best way to search if your company name OR business concept/idea has been trademarked?

Question

What is the best way to search if your company name OR business concept/idea has been trademarked?

Answer 1

Here are some links where you can do some preliminary checking. However, please be aware that this is merely scratching the surface of what's out there.

http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/gate.exe?f=te...  -- USPTO – Preliminary Search of Federal trademarks

http://biztaxlaw.about.com/od/research/a... --Go to your state's Secretary of State page to see if they have a searchable database of business names

http://www.hoovers.com/free/

http://www.thomasnet.com – Must register (free) to search their database

Only comprehensive research will tell you if the name is truly available. But, these links are free & a great place to start, so I'd try them out first.

Comprehensive research consists of looking at marks that are similar in Sound, Appearance or Meaning in the pending & registered Federal AND State trademark files as well as the US National Common-Law files.

There are other sites that offer free searching capabilities in conjunction with their commercial services, so I'm not able to post those links due to the Yahoo! TOS. You'll also want to check domain names & yellow pages, so simply do a search for "free domain name search" and "national yellowpages" and the appropriate links will pop up.

Hope that helps! I wish you much success & happiness in all your ventures!

Answer 2

business is actually by state, not by county.

names are first come, first served.

but even if you had a name that was not registered in your state, say in Florida, but was registered in another state prior to you, they would have rights to it in all states, especially if the function of the business was the same or similar.

Answer 3

business is by county, concept cannot be trademarked unless it involves a unique invention