Ami Bhatt & Arun Nagarajancheckmarkapp.herokuapp.com

CheckMark Making trademark clearance more efficient

Trademarks are valuable assets of every business. Selecting and registering trademarks and important process in protecting this assetCornerstone to this process is the USPTO site.

Trademarks: Background

To determine whether the mark can be used and registered, conduct trademark clearance● Avoid refusal by PTO for likelihood of confusion with an existing trademark● Avoid suit for infringement of an existing trademark● Allows for selection of a strong mark● Reduces risk of having to rebrand or destroying infringing merchandise

after the launch of a product or campaign● Ability to enforce trademark against others

Importance of Trademark Clearance

Broadly, a Two-Step Process

1. “Knock-Out” Search 2. “Full” Search

Searching on USPTO Site: TESS

Basic Search - The Name Says It All

Structured Search - Limited Criteria

Free Form Search - Mastery of Codes

Constructing Free Form Searches

Result of Records

Individually Review Each Result

And PTO Website Has More Info!TSDR contains information relevant for clearance, but not available through TESS records results page, including:● Goods or Services● Date of Registration● Design Elements● Owner● “Live” or “Dead”● Prosecution History of the Mark

Time and Hassle!

Beware the time-out

What Does This Mean?

Trademark Office website has relevant information, but is not easy to obtain and view.Leads to inefficient, uninformed, incorrect decision-making.

Solution: CheckMark

CheckMark allows a user to leverage information available on the Trademark Office Site to save time and make better decisions.

Demo

Automatic Alerts

Beyond Delivering Key Information

Build product’s capabilities to include:● Smarter Searching:

○ Advanced searching and refine results by TSDR criteria○ Add way to search by design elements○ Phonetic searching capabilities ○ Provide “similarity” index○ Suggested related classes of goods and services

● Go beyond trademark clearance: ○ Use in registration and prosecution of marks○ Brand and Mark protection through automatic alerts

Example - Related Classes

Identify that the relevant service is beer. CheckMark would note relevant goods & services in classes 032, 033, 040, 043.

Thank you!

Questions?

Ami Bhatt, Arun NagarajanAttorney, Norris, McLaughlin & Marcus, P.A. Lead Technologist, Stealth

Checkmark: Sample Result

Checkmark: Link to TSDR Info