Trademark and Branding
Trademark search -- To determine your proposed mark has not been used before,done prior to filing and registering a trademark or service mark.
Preliminary searches can be done individually but a trademark attorney is strongly recommended.
Pending and registered trademark searches in federal, state and unregistered databases are all needed. This guide is limited to free sources for federal trademark searches.
Choosing a trademark: Not likely to confuse the customer, another product or service does not complete with yours, not marketed through the same means. Domain names can not interfere with a trademark
USPTO United States Patent and Trademark Office
Follow links to: Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS)
1. What TESS includes: Federal registered and pending trademarks, service marks.
How to search TESS for preliminary search
1. Browse Dictionary
2. Direct Hit
3. Structured Search
Supplier of products
ThomasRegister.com
Excellent for suppliers and manufactures and B2B. Catalog of products and services and trade and corporate names.
Other searches
Domain names register.com
Google search for images, descriptions, and domain names
Trademarkia.com Free to use with referrals to legal searches
Superpages.com To find if a company name has been used.
To read more: Elias, S., & Stim, Richard. (2010). Trademark : Legal care for your business & product name (9th ed.). Berkeley, Calif.: Nolo.
Georgia Tech LibGuide Patent and Trademarks
Site Selection
In this session you will use the information you have already gathered to search for competitors and for optimal site selection based on demographic research.
ESRI Community Analyst Online can match consumer characteristics to existing business locations.