Tools · Guide · 5 steps · ~5 minutes

How to check trademark availability in five steps.

A short, honest walkthrough of the actual process — what to search, where, and in what order — plus a free screening tool at the bottom that runs all five steps in one call under three seconds.

The five steps.

1. Step 1

   Write down the exact name you want to check

   Trademark law cares about the exact string. 'Foo' and 'Foo!' and 'FooCo' are three different marks. If you have design elements (a logo, a stylised wordmark), start with the word-mark only — visual elements register separately.

2. Step 2

   Identify the industry class

   Trademarks are scoped by the Nice classification — 45 industry classes internationally. A one-line description of what you're building ('dev tools SaaS', 'coffee shop', 'cosmetics') is enough to narrow the screening. Same string can be safe in one class and blocked in another.

3. Step 3

   Search the US register (USPTO)

   The USPTO's TESS interface is free and canonical. You can also use the screening tool below, which hits USPTO plus EUIPO and UKIPO in one call and returns a signal instead of a raw hit list.

4. Step 4

   Search the EU and UK registers

   EUIPO covers the European Union; UKIPO covers the United Kingdom post-Brexit. Both matter if you have EU or UK customers. Also worth checking WIPO Madrid Protocol for international filings.

5. Step 5

   Run a common-law check

   Not every prior use is in a register. A quick web scan for the string in commercial contexts surfaces companies that are using the name without registering it. Additive evidence — it should downgrade your confidence, not decide it.

Run all five in one call.

The screening below runs the USPTO, EUIPO, and UKIPO probes plus a common-law scan in parallel. Paste a name and get one signal in under three seconds. Five free per IP, no signup.

What a screening is and isn't.

Common mistakes.

• Searching Google and calling it a trademark search.

  Google indexes what companies say about themselves. It doesn't index the USPTO or EUIPO trademark registers with the depth those registers deserve. A name that “doesn't come up on Google” can still be a registered senior mark you've never heard of.

• Ignoring the industry class.

  A trademark check without an industry class is scoped to defaults (software/SaaS, most of the time). If you're building consumer packaged goods, the software class is the wrong lookup. Every screening on this tool asks for a one-line description; use it.

• Checking only the exact string.

  “Klasp” is different from “Klasp Co” in the register. But the DuPont factors that govern likelihood of confusion also consider phonetic and visual similarity. The screening runs phoneme-distance checks against nearby marks; a raw string lookup on TESS does not.

• Skipping foreign jurisdictions.

  Post-Brexit the UK is a separate register from the EU. A European launch with no UK check is a check with a hole in it. The screening above covers UKIPO and EUIPO by default.

Frequently asked.

How do I check trademark availability for free?

The USPTO's TESS system is free and comprehensive for US trademarks. For a one-call screening across US, EU, and UK plus a common-law scan, use the tool at the bottom of this page — the first five per IP address are free with no signup.

How long does a trademark search take?

A TESS lookup for one class takes maybe five minutes if you know what you're looking at. A multi-jurisdiction screening with the tool below is under three seconds. A full attorney clearance opinion is a different animal — expect one to three weeks and $500-$2,500.

Do I need an attorney to check trademark availability?

Not to check. You can screen a name yourself in a few seconds. What you do need an attorney for: interpreting the results in the context of your specific goods and services, deciding whether a nearby senior mark is really a threat, and filing the application itself. Screening shrinks the shortlist so the attorney consult that follows is cheaper.

What's the difference between a knockout search and a full clearance?

A knockout search rules out the obvious failures — identical-string registered marks in the same class. That's what this tool and TESS do. A full clearance search adds phonetic equivalents, design elements, common-law use in commerce, and jurisdiction-specific edge cases. It's what attorneys deliver, usually over one to three weeks. Knockout is upstream of clearance — you always do it first.

Can I check trademark availability internationally?

Yes. The tool below screens US (USPTO), EU (EUIPO), and UK (UKIPO) by default. For deeper international coverage, WIPO's Madrid Monitor searches the Madrid Protocol register. Each additional jurisdiction adds cost and complexity for filing, so most founders start with their primary market and expand from there.

What if the trademark is registered in a different industry?

The same string can often be registered in different Nice classes by different owners. Delta Airlines (class 39, transport) and Delta Faucets (class 11, plumbing) coexist. A same-string, different-class registration usually surfaces as PROCEED_STRATEGIC with a caution — the screening flags the collision so the attorney consult can evaluate the specific risk.