In addition to this, we now provide a phone number on the contact page should you wish to call us!

In all likelyhood, if you type your name into Google and don’t get any relevant results then it probably hasn’t been registered. However, you cannot be entirely certain as a company may have registered the name for future use and so it is important to check the various trademark registers to be sure.

A trademark search can be done yourself using self service online tools or you can pay a legal advisor to do it for you. Obviously, you will have to pay for the latter and although a lawyer will be able to give you specific advice and do a more detailed search through the relevant IP offices, we have found that if you combine Google, the availability of domain names and no results from an online trademark search, you’re usually fine!

So where can you search? Unfortunately there is no single worldwide trademark registry so you need to do searches in a number of key locations where you intend to do business. At the very least, this should include a UK and US search.

It is important to understand how trademarks work, in particular how the different classes relate to how a trademark can be used and opposed. A trademark is generally registered in one or more classes and Person A may use the same trademark as Person B if it is in a different class (and is not already registered and is not opposed). This means that when you search, you should perform the search across all classes or in classes relevant to your intended use. See this cross search guide from the UK Intellectual Property Office for information.

So where can you do the searches?

• Australia - Trade Mark Search
• Canada - Intellectual Property Office
• Germany - Patent and Trade Mark Office
• Ireland - Patents Office
• UK - Intellectual Property Office
• US - Patent and Trademark Office

Finally, the Singapore Government provide a free service called SurfIP that allows you to search a wide range of trademark databases simultaneously - Canada, China, European, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Taipei, Thailand, UK, US and the World Intellectual Property Organisation.

Previously, all the sites were displayed in a big table (with paging) regardless of which word they were discoveries for. Now, you can filter the table by word. Obviously, if you only have 1 word then there’s no option to do this but as we began to track more words and had a large number of results, it became apparent that it is important to be able to do that.

And now you can. It is very quick and easy for us to add these minor features and hopefully they will all add to the great user experience we’re trying to build, based on our own use even before customers get a go!

Before:

After:

1. Check the facts

2. Determine the impact

3. Bring together trusted counsel

4. Understand your detractor

5. Decide on the appropriate response

6. Host the conversation

7. After the dust has settled

Whilst it is certainly a good plan, a lot of the steps seem to be common sense. The crucial factor of course is not rushing into responding, which really applies to any situtation, and thinking carefully about the ramifications of your reply. This is much more likely to be of use to larger companies which have set PR policies than smaller businesses or individually but that said, attacks on reputation can happen to anyone and it is important to have an idea of what to do next even if there is no formal plan.

The book, Radically Transparent: Monitoring and Managing Reputations Online (to give it its full title), is not out in the UK until 13 March but is available in the US right now. Once our (UK) Amazon order arrives, you can be sure of a full review.

Although not an in-depth “howto”, it does have a few tips about how to be proactive in protecting your name including registering as many domain names as possible that contain your name including variations containing swearing. It is interesting to note that the companies mentioned charge a huge amount to help you, the figures quoted mention a fee of £900 GBP (~$1750 USD)!

Once you own a trademark, it is important to enforce your rights under it otherwise you could lose them. This is particularly the case if your trademark becomes a commonly used word. Companies such as Google and Xerox have this problem because of the popularity of their brand names.

One possible solution is going down the legal route of sending take down notices, also known as cease and desist. Unsurprisingly, this will often scare the recipient into complying but it is not always the best option for that very reason, as the Church of Scientology has recently found out with regards to the leaked video.

A better solution could be to try and work with the site that is (mis)using your trademark to come to some kind of arrangement whereby you can receive a link back from their site but at the same time enforce your trademark usage guidelines. Attributor have posted a useful set of 10 reasons why you should avoid the legal route where possible. It is in relation to copied content but the same ideas no doubt apply for trademarks too.