Scenario: you’ve brainstormed with a core group of confidants and come up with a descriptive, compelling, splashy name for your company, brand, or product. You run it through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s quick search online and guess what? It’s available! You’re golden. Company naming is easy, right?
Unfortunately, even if you’re lucky enough to get this far with your favorite name, it doesn’t mean you’re in the clear. If you search the USPTO’s database, you may only find exact matches, but the basis for trademark infringement is “likelihood of confusion.” That means there could be alternate spellings or merely similar-sounding names that could disqualify your claim. If you press on without knowing these potential conflicts, you risk wasting money and time.
The truth is that the names that kindle the most initial enthusiasm are often the ones with treacherous trademark issues lurking behind them. The reason? If there’s an incredible but somewhat obvious name choice, it’s likely someone has already snapped it up. Our clients often love the names with the highest risk because those are the most popular.
How Our Extensive Trademark Screening Works
Thankfully, we don’t do a glitchy quick search and call it a day. We have a dedicated team of researchers who use the same services that trademark attorneys use. In addition to federal trademark checks, we also perform state checks, common law usage, and web screenings. We also have the ability to search global trademarks in a number of countries if necessary.
This is the kind of nitty-gritty stuff that we deal with every day because we understand that the screening process needs to focus on more than availability. There are nuances and subtleties to trademark law and common usage law that only experience can prepare you to catch. And we do our trademark screening as part of our standard business naming services — which means you incur no extra fees to attain that desired peace of mind.
Why You Should Let Us Solve Your Company Naming Conundrum
Our decades of experience have sharpened our skills and made us pretty savvy name screeners. But we don’t rely too heavily on past experience — we stay abreast of the shifting trends so that your name is relevant in today’s rapidly changing culture. You can feel fully confident that the names we pitch to you have cleared all of our preliminary screenings — reducing the chances that your legal will reject the name because it’s too high risk for your company, brand, product, or service.
To top it off, we work for a flat fee, which means we repeat the screening process as many times as it takes to earn your satisfaction. That’s why we’re here!
