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For the first time you can now get an automated, full common law search included in your US trademark clearance report. And still not pay more than $129 for the whole report. 

On demand from our US clients we have expanded our common law coverage with some of today's most important content. The US Full search report's common law part now includes six different sections:  

• Web search - New
• Image search - New
• Social media search - New
• Social name search - New
• US company names
• Domain names 

It is hard to imagine a relevant result that could not be found within these groups today. Ten years ago there were still a number of printed sources, like telephone books and magazines, with "trademark" names that did not show up anywhere else. But that is not the case anymore. 

So we think this makes the common law section for the US Full truly full/comprehensive. 

The trademark results section was already full, with both federal and state trademarks, all processed with the best similarity algorithm in the world. 

Same low price

And we decided to add these new sources without changing the price - $129 - which is by far the best price in the industry for a comparable comprehensive - full availability - US trademark clearance report. Other providers are charging more than $600 for such a report.   

In order to keep the search fast and not drive extra costs, our search is fully automated, with the below described settings for the US Full trademark search report: 

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Web search - New

Scope of search: An automated, "intelligent" web search where known biases as region and personal search history have been eliminated. The search combines the trademark name with important keywords provided during the order. 

The top 30 results are included as links and short descriptions. Optional: You can add screen captures of the relevant pages where also the keywords have been highlighted.  

Note: The web/social media is so big that even the best keyword search may retrieve a million search results. This means that no search report, automated or human, can guarantee that there are no potential common law conflicts out there. All we can do is minimize the risk.    

Images - New
Scope of search: The same search settings as the Web search. The top 30 results are included.

Social media search - New 
Scope of search: A search of the use of the trademark name in the world's largest social networks: Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, Instagram, Google+ and Pinterest. The top 20 results from each social network are included. 

Social names - New 
Scope of search: A search if the trademark name is registered as a user name in any of 80 social networks.

US company names 
Scope of search: A search among more than 20 million secretary of state business records from all US states and Washington DC. Identical and very similar results.

Domain names 
Scope of search: Identical and very similar results from more than 1000 TLD's, covering both gTLD', ccTLD's and New gTLD's. See full list.

Federal trademarks (USPTO) 

Scope of search: The world's best similarity algorithm, finding more than 99% of potential conflicts. Official data updated daily from the USPTO .

US state trademarks 

Scope of search: A search among all the 50 US states' trademark records. (Same similarity algorithm as the federal search.)  

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The average turn-around time: 5 min. And you can choose to include or exclude any of the above sections in your report. 

If you have not yet tried our full availability report, send me an email and I will set you up for a free trial. 

If this is not the best US full availability report, please tell me what is missing or what should be changed? The best suggestions will be rewarded. 

Since we started Markify six years ago our aim has been to build and improve the world's best trademark search algorithm. Finding all potential conflicts but with as little noise as possible.

Now we are releasing our next step in that work - our statistical Risk analysis. 

The ranking of our results is based on a statistical analysis of more than 10.000 official cases of confusingly similar trademarks in the EU or the US. These come from OHIM decision and from USPTO 2(d) citations and TTAB decisions. 

The main difference between these two sources are the number of languages they handle. While the USPTO largely concentrate on English, and Spanish to some extent, the OHIM/CTM decisions handles 28 countries, all with a mix of languages.  

Instead of showing the individual risk level for every result, we have gouped the results in four "Risk level" groups. Each level indicate statistically how big risk there is that you will find a potential conflict in this group.  

Level 1 - Very high risk.

Of all conflicts in Europe or the US, 20% have these types of similarities. 

This group of results typically stands for less than 1% of the total amount of results. 

Level 2 - High risk. 

Of all conflicts in Europe or the US, 40% have  these types of similarities. 

This group of results typically stands for only 5% of the total amount of results. 

Level 3 - Medium risk. 

Of all conflicts in Europe or the US, 25% have these types of similarities. 

This group of results typically stand for 20% of the total amount of results.  

Level 4 - Low risk. 

Of all conflicts in Europe or the US, 15% have these types of similarities.  

This group of results typically stands for 75% of the total amount of results. 

As you can see above, the lower the risk, the longer the result list. The last group of results contain 75% of all results, but with only 15% of the potential conflicts. 

This is frustrating for us developing the algorithm and for our clients, who have to analyze all results. Just think how much easier trademark clearance work would be if you could just skip Level 4. But unfortunately there are so many conflict cases in this group that you cannot neglect it. 

However, in some cases I know that the attorney does skip the lower part of the results list. This is often the case when he wants to save time and money for the client and maybe when the client feel that an opposition is not the end of the world. 

For other clients, with a marketing start in the near future, that would not be an option. They would not want to risk the first six months of marketing investments... 

Risk levels are currently not included in downloaded reports. Our thinking is that most of our clients' clients will not understand the meaning of "risk". It is just there in the online report to make your job faster and easier. 

Please send me your feedback at benoit@markify.com.

Notes

The "signal-to-noise ratio" - the scientific name for measuring accuracy - is tested as the best in the trademark search industry (see independent Benchmark Report). 

The Markify Comprehensive Search Algorithm finds more than 99% of potential conflicts, but does it with a total number of results that on average is 50% lower than comparable reports (Full /Comprehensive reports) done by other providers. 

Once again we have looked at all EU and USPTO trademark applications the last year - 2012 - and done a quick analysis of what words are used.

Raw lists of the popular 1000 trademark words can be found here: Top 1000 USPTO trademark words 2012, Top 1000 CTM trademark words 2012

The total number of different "words" are over 130.000. The distribution is as usual: 90 percent are used less than 5 times, like PINTEREST and JABRA, and the top 10 percent are used up to 2000 times, like ONE and LOVE.

Popular USPTO trademark words

What words were popular 2012 when it came to getting a US trademark registration?

A new word on the top list is CLOUD, wich was strong already in 2011 with 372 occurrences and this year made it to the top list when it showed up in 454 trademarks applications. Compare that with 2006, when CLOUD only showed up in 28 trademark applications.

Other trademark words moving up on the list are: WATER, FREE, STAR, BODY an NATIONAL.

Single letters are very popular in trademark filings, like T, N and E. A rising star here is the letter M, which appears in more than 700 trademark applications last year compared to 450 the year before.

Words moving down on the list are GREEN, REAL, USA and SOCIAL.

The top 100 USPTO trademark words 2012:

Note that we have eliminated the most common "stop words" like  THE, IS, AT, YOU, AND etc, and some company attributes like INC, LLC, COMPANY and GROUP.

Popular EU trademark words

We have also done a similar analysis of the very popular EU trademark registration called CTM (from OHIM). A CTM (Community Trade Mark) covers 27 countries and many languages. Surprisingly there is not a large  difference between the EU trademark list and the US trademarks. English is the dominating language, at least in the  in the pan-European trademark registration CTM.

A couple of trademark words you find in the CTM top list that you don't find in the USPTO top list: ECO, HOTEL, LONDON, QUALITY, ROYAL, EASY, EUROPEAN and PARIS.

After months of work the Markify trademark registration service is launched. When we set out to build the world's best trademark registration service we made the following list of criteria:

1. Easy and fast trademark application.
   • Start-ups and brand builders expect a web service to be easy and fast. Anything else is failure.
2. Help from experienced trademark attorneys.
   • Sure, you can do a trademark registration without the help of a trademark attorney. But in most cases it's a bad choice because of:
     • the time it takes,
     • the small money you save and
     • the risks involved.
   • We have put together a small network of independent trademark experts in the US and in Europe. Some of them run their own trademark law firm. Some work for big IP focused law firms. They all have in common that they are passionate about trademarks.
3. Focus on EU and US trademarks.
   • A CTM trademark registration from OHIM covers 27 EU countries in one application. With a government fee of only € 900 it is often the best deal for ambitious start-ups. CTM is also the fastest growing trademark registration in Europe.
   • A USPTO trademark registration protects your brand in the world's most important market, the US, and the government fee is only $325 per class.
4. Leverage the Markify comprehensive search technology.
   • Every Markify trademark registration gives you a Comprehensive Search that finds 99% of all confusingly similar brands (CTM, USPTO, Domains and Common law).
   • You also get a Comprehensive Trademark and Domain Name Watch that will help you protect your new brand.
   • These two services are included and only available through Markify.
5. Cheaper than any other trademark registration service.
   • Our attorneys could give us rock-bottom prices, since we are giving them a new client on a "silver platter". All client and trademark details are filled in and all fees are payed for.
   • The pricing goes from $199 (Core package) to $499 (Full package) + government fees for a USPTO trademark. And from € 299 (Core) to €499 (Full) + government fees for a CTM/OHIM trademark.
   • Another reason our pricing can be so low is that the Comprehensive Search is relevance ranked, which makes the job much easier and faster for the trademark attorney.

How do you think we can improve the trademark registration service? Send me an email at benoit 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