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If you look at all USPTO trademark filings during 2011, you find 130.000 different "words". 90 percent of these words are used less than 5 times, like QUORA and SINGER. But the top 10 percent are used as many as 2000 times, like LIFE and HEALTH.

If you are thinking of a new name for a business or trademark, you should probably avoid all these words. They are so common that they are very weak as trademark components.

The list has few surprises so we compared it with 2006 and found only two new, very common trademark words. Can you guess which ones? (Answer at bottom of blog post) We also compared this list with a similar list for EU trademarks (CTM/OHIM), but found no major differences.

We have eliminated the most common "stop words" like  THE, IS, AT, YOU, AND etc, and some company attributes like INC, COMPANY and GROUP. The top 100 trademark words 2011:

The two new words on the list of fop 100 trademark words 2011, when compared to 2006, is number 61 and 94. Not very surprising.

Markify now releases the world's first comprehensive trademark search API. It's fast and free and it covers the US and the EU.

We have debated internally quite a bit about how much you can and should cannibalize on your own business. Not an easy discussion.

A lot of the big on-line companies have very restricted APIs. After reading this very good blog post about APIs, we decided to go the other way.

So what do you get from the Markify trademark search API?

1. The world's most accurate trademark search, finding 99% of confusingly similar trademarks.
2. Results in similarity order. No one else does this.
3. Daily updated trademark data from the USPTO and from the large pan-European database OHIM/CTM
4. Fast and free. Average response times are less than 0.9 seconds.

Who do we think should be interested?

• Domain name registrars - Let your users do a fast trademark search to make sure they can use the domain name for their new business. We believe this will sell more domains to business oriented users. How? The level of trust and service will result in more buys than the occasional possible trademark conflict.
• Law firms - Become more time and cost efficient towards your trademark search/clearance clients.
• Legal and docketing software companies - You already have a great software and a client base. So now you can easily integrate the world's most accurate trademark search for USPTO and OHIM/CTM.
• Developers - You have an idea of a mash-up or a new way to use the trademark search engine? We will love to hear about it.

You find instructions, rules and documentation for the trademark search API here

Don't hesitate to contact us and we'll try to help you the best we can. And we love feedback! Send me a mail at my first name followed by our domain name.

In an interview with ArcticStartup I was asked to come up with my best tips to start-ups regarding trademark and their new business name:

1. Choose a name that can be trademarked.

Why? You will avoid conflicts, enable expansion and sleep better. There are two basic requirements on your new trademark:

a) It should not be generic in your business area. The name "CoolApps" is generic if you're going to deliver a new marketplace for apps.

b) No one else should be using a "confusingly similar" trademark in your potential markets. Start your search at markify.com for confusingly similar marks. Avoid all similar marks that are in your line of business. If you are uncertain, contact a trademark attorney.

2. Buy all relevant domain names.

a) For most international start-ups that means a .com. Don't only look for available domain names. Even if the domain name is taken, it often is for sale. Average prices for domain names at auctions are $500

b) Buy 5-10 typos.

c) Buy at least 5-10 country extensions (ccTLDs). Choose the biggest markets where you think you may expand.

3. Register the trademark in your primary market.

In Europe choose the Pan-European CTM trademark, which covers 27 EU countries for a fee of 850 Euros.

In the US a USPTO trademark costs $325.

4. Watch and protect your trademark.

If there is a new confusingly similar application you should act upon it. So sign up for a free trademark watch at Markify.

Don't hesitate to contact me if you think I can help

When we launched Markify a year ago we had been building our trademark similarity algorithm for more than two years. Why did it take so long? The simple answer is that our ambition was to build the world's best trademark search engine.

The more complex answer is that I was convinced that to launch with an inferior product would not give us a real test of Markify. It would not test if we had a "minimum viable product", to speak Eric Ries language.

But it was not an easy decision. We had a lot of discussion in the team on when to launch, and the term "good enough" was always challenging "the world's best trademark search engine".

So the feeling  when we finally launched in December 2010 was one of great relief and anticipation.  Since then everything has gone much faster, our learning curve has accelerated and we are having so much more fun!

Some of Markify's highlights 2011:

• Reaching more than 100.000 users every month, and rising, that are doing comprehensive trademark and domain name searches.
• Reaching 99% accuracy with our trademark search algorithm.
• Becoming number 1 in the US benchmark of trademark search services.
• Getting that amazing response from so many trademark attorneys at the INTA meeting in San Francisco in May.
• Lauch of the world's first free comprehensive trademark watch, together with the Pro watch for trademark attorneys.

What has been most challenging 2011?

I think Steve Blank put it best: "A startup is an organization formed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model."

We have been fortunate to have very good investors in the Nordic VC firm CNCP. But VC money is NOT a business model, even if you are sometimes lead to believe that.

To balance business development and product development. That has been and will be our greatest challenge going forward.

When Markify now moves into 2012, I can promise you some soon-to-come exciting new releases. And I believe these will have the right mix of a great product and a good business opportunity - for both you and us.

Last week there was an interesting seminar in Stockholm about the new top level domains (gTLDs) that will be open to application early 2012. Participating were representatives from all sides: registrars, registries, ICANN, trademark lawyers, brand owners and domainers.

I got to talk to some of them and here are my thoughts on how big brand and trademark owners will and should act. (We at Markify have no financial interest in the new gtlds.)

Three categories of gTLDs

First a bit of background:

From January 2012 anyone can buy their own tld, http://newgtlds.icann.org/ The fee for just buying the tld will be $185.000 plus $25.000/year. The cost for marketing your new tld will of course be much higher.

The three main categories that will apply for a new tld seems to be:

1. Geographies/Communities: .nyc, .moscow, .gay
2. Generic words: .bank, .poker, .shop
3. Brands: .facebook, .hitachi, .canon

Number 1. Geographies and number 2. Generic words will both try to sell domain names in one way or another.  But number 3. Brands is a very different category, with a very different agenda. What will they do and why?

The one big reason to buy a tld for a trademark owner

Why should a brand owner even consider buying a new gtld? The core sales pitch you can hear focus on two aspects:

• A short and attractive url – .SQUARE instead of SQUAREUP.COM
• New marketing possibilities – DRIVE.BMW instead of DRIVE.BMW.COM

I think most owners of big brands will think: “Why bother? I don’t need that. I already have the url I want and I’d rather spend that money on something else.”

True, but my guess is that they will reconsider and actually try to buy the new tld. Why? For one big reason:

You don’t want anyone else using your brand as a top level domain.

Some trademark holders, with really famous, well-known trademarks, will be able to stop others from getting the tld. But most trademark owners will not be able to stop an application, because they don’t have all the trademark rights (all classes, all markets). The only certain way to stop it will be to buy the tld yourself.

What you should do: 3 cases

In short: If you can afford it - both the fee and the future marketing costs - you should buy your own tld. But for a couple of different reasons.

Case 1 - “Facebook”
You own the relevant .com and there are no other identical big brands competing for the new tld.

To-do: Buy the new tld primarily for defensive reasons. You don’t want anyone else to own it.

Case 2 - “Apple”
You own the relevant .com (like Apple Inc does) but there are other identical brands (like Apple Records) competing for the new tld.

To-do: Buy the new tld primarily for defensive reasons. You don’t want anyone else to own it and in the long term there might be advantages using it.

Case 3 - “SAS”
You don’t own the relevant .com, like Square, SAS (the airline), Next (many) etc. This group is highly motivated and they are the dream clients of the "helping-you-get-the-tld-you-deserve" industry.

To-do: Try to buy the new tld to get an attractive url. And be prepared to invest heavily in marketing your new domain.

The .com vs new gtlds

For the foreseeable future, 3-5 years, I believe the .com will continue to be the prime real-estate online. The new top level domains will form a new, second rate domain class, just below the .com domain.

Why? Because most big brands, that already have the .com, will not bother to invest huge amounts in teaching people a new url. Even if the url is shorter, it still is a change of address. And as long as the big brands stay on the .com with their main sites, it will continue to be the prime address.