Awareness regarding Intellectual Property has been rapidly increasing since the last decade. Indian startups, companies, firms and businessmen are willing to get through trademark registration in order to identify and distinguish their products or services from their competitors. According to the statistics, approximately one lakh trademark applications were filed in 2015.

Hence, it is quite important to do detailed research before you File a Trademark Application. It makes the applicant confident about the uniqueness of their chosen Trademark and the probability of acceptance of it is higher. A proper search for a trademark will make the registration possible. In this article, we will try to give clarity regarding Trademark search in India.

The Trademark Database in India is supervised by Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trademarks. Trademark database consists of all the objected, registered, applied, abandoned and expired trademarks. The authorities have granted online access to trademark database for the users. You can visit to get important information regarding trademark status. You can come to know whether your chosen trademark is not previously registered by another applicant under the record books of the trademark.

How to do Trademark Search?

In order to search for a trademark in India, one requires visiting the official government website of General of Patents, Designs and Trademarks. You can do the trademark search in two ways:

1. Wordmark Search
2. Phonetical Search

The detailed procedure of the same is explained below:

1. Wordmark Search:

• Step 1: Select the search type as “Wordmark” on the top of the page
• Step 2: Enter the preferred wordmark you want to search in the box beside “start with” option.
• Step 3: Enter the class from1 to 45 under which your products or services comes. You are able to check the classification of products and services from the link: the class from1 to 45 under which your goods or services fall.
• Step 4: After filling in the suitable class, click on the “Search” option. A report will be generated to show all the similar trademark application. The following example will show the result for the trademark search word “suit” underclass 43 (Class 43 provides food, drinks and temporary accommodation).
• Step 5: Select the option “show detail”. It will display the information regarding the trademark such as application number, application date, and details of the owner, validity of trademark, status and description.
• Step 6: You have to click on the “tick box” and then the “report” option to save the details of the respective Trademark application.

2.Phonetical Search:

Phonetical search provides a much wider opportunity to search for a Trademark to receive double assurance to the user about the fact that no similar trademark exists when it comes to the sound and spelling of the trademark. All the steps of Phonetical Search are the same as Wordmark Search except step 1.

In case of Phonetical Search, Step 1 would be Select the search type as “Phonetic” on the Top of the page.