Lesson 2: Conducting a Preliminary Screening Trademark Search
Objectives
In this lesson, you will learn to:
- Use the Rotated Index to screen trademarks
- Use the Basic Index to locate a trademark
- Print and save records
Introduction
Jeri -
Thanks for the Legoland trademarks, especially the image of Legoland. We noticed that the owner listed in the full record was a company called Interlego. My client now wants to know if what you sent is as comprehensive a list of marks for Legoland as you can get. He thought the owner was someone else. Any possibility for more records?
Thanks,
--Ray
It is important before applying for a trademark to make sure that it is not the same as, or similar to, one that is already in use. A preliminary screening is conducted to make sure that the proposed trademark is not similar in look, sound, or that it does not convey the same overall commercial impression. It is also important to be as comprehensive as possible. 
We can use Ray's request to do a preliminary screening on Legoland in TRADEMARKSCAN®—U.S. Federal (File 226). This database serves as a fast screening tool for checking the availability of new product or service names in the United States. Thomson and Thomson, the database producer, has designed the database to make trademark screening searches easy and comprehensive, with several powerful features. Consider the following.
A simple word search can be done to retrieve all trademarks that contain certain words. For example,
select high and light
will retrieve all marks that contain both words. The search will not retrieve any trademarks with variant spellings that sound similar, however. For example, the trademark "Hi & Lite" will not be found using this keyword or Basic Index search.
To get around this limitation, Thomson and Thomson created the Rotated Index (TR=), a feature unique to trademark searching. The Rotated Index allows you to search for terms in any part of the trademark: whole words, prefixes, suffixes, and mid-word strings. Preliminary screening searches are best run within the Rotated Trademark index because it enables the most comprehensive searches. The Rotated Index is also ideal for searching multi-term marks.
There are several considerations to keep in mind when searching the text of a trademark in the Rotated Index:
- A term used with the TR= prefix must be truncated with a "?" or
zero results are generated
Example: s tr=fluff? - Place parentheses around multiple terms and connect the terms with
the logical operator AND
Example: s tr=(soft? and fluff?)
You may also search each part of the mark using TR=
Example: s tr=soft? and tr=fluff? - It is often helpful to use the SELECT
STEPS (SS) command so that each search term is retrieved in a
separate set ; thus, combining sets is easier.
Example: ss tr=(clock? and work?)
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