Searching trademarks
Reading your search results
On this page
A search returns a ranked list of marks that resemble yours. Here is how to read it.
The scope card
Above the results, a summary restates exactly what was searched: your query, the countries, the classes, how many registries were covered, any match types you excluded, and the date range. If something surprises you in the results, check here first — it is usually a scope question.
Next to it sits the result count: “Showing 1–12 of 240 results”.
A result card, field by field
| Field | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Mark | The image, or the words rendered large |
| Relevance badge | How strongly this matched your query — shown until a quick analysis gives the card a verdict |
| Why similar? | The exact mechanisms that matched — see below |
| Verdict | Conflict, Review or Dismiss, with the goods and services overlap and a Why? link — once you have run a quick analysis |
| Applicants | Who owns it |
| Territories | Where it has effect |
| NICE classes | What goods and services it covers; the classes you searched for come first, in red |
| Application / Registration no. | Official identifiers |
| Status | Live, pending, lapsed, withdrawn, and so on |
| Application / Registration date | When it was filed and granted |
| Origin office | Which register it came from |
| View details | Opens the official TMview record in a new tab |
Why similar?
This is the most useful control on the card. It lists which mechanisms matched — identical, similar spelling, similar sound, visual lookalike, partial match, number equivalent — so you can judge the hit yourself.
A mark that matched only phonetically, in a different class, in a country you do not sell in, is probably noise. A mark that matched as identical, in your class, live, in your target market, is the one to worry about.
Telling a real problem from noise
Work through four questions, in this order:
- Is it live? Lapsed, withdrawn and refused marks rarely block anything.
- Are the goods related? Same or neighbouring classes matter; unrelated ones usually do not.
- Is it in your market? A national mark in a country you will never enter is not your problem.
- How close is it really? Read Why similar? rather than trusting the ranking alone.
The quick analysis runs this triage for you: one click, and every similar mark gets a verdict — Conflict, Review or Dismiss — with the reason, and the list re-sorts with the conflicts first. It spends no credit.
If several hits survive all four questions, that is your signal to run an assessment, which weighs exactly these factors and tells you what they mean for registration.
Selecting marks
Each card has a checkbox (for signed-in users). Selecting one or more turns the actions row in the results header into the actions for your selection:
- Use for assessment — carry the selection into the assessment wizard.
- Save selected — keep them in a saved search.
- Monitor selected — turn each mark into its own monitoring job.
Pagination
Results come in pages of 12, 24, 48 or 96. Paging never spends another search — it reads the cached result set, which lives for about an hour. After that, re-running the query refreshes it.
What guests see
Without an account you see only the top few matches, with the real total displayed above them. A free account unlocks the complete list, filters, sorting and selection.