Conducting a trademark search is an important step when launching a brand. A trademark clearance search can uncover potential risks that could result in future conflicts and expensive litigation. While a search may be conducted for any type of mark, there are some additional considerations when clearing a stylized trademark versus a word mark.

What is a Word Mark?

A word mark is a trademark comprising solely of text in standard character format without regard to the font, style, size, or color.

What is a Stylized Mark?

A stylized trademark may consist solely of design elements (e.g. graphics or images) or a combination of design elements and text. 

Clearing a Word Mark Versus a Stylized Mark

When conducting a search for a word mark, the scope of the search should include identical marks, similar marks with variations in spelling, marks with similar meanings including foreign translations, and phonetically similar marks. When conducting a search for a stylized mark, the search should reveal marks with similar design elements. When a stylized mark includes both text and design elements, a potentially conflicting mark could have similar text and/or design elements. 

For example, a search for the stylized ACME LOTION mark below may uncover existing marks with the text “Acme Lotion” and/or with the design elements, such as the colors blue and brown and the thick rectangular border. Even if a third-party mark does not include the identical text, “Acme Lotion,” it may still be potentially confusing.

Looking at the new and existing marks above, it is possible that a consumer may believe the products sold in connection with each of these stylized marks are sold by the same company. Similarly, if there was an existing ACME LOTION word mark that did not include any of the design elements of the new mark above, it could still pose a conflict for the new mark. 

When clearing a stylized mark that includes both text and design elements, the scope of the search should include the design elements and text separately and combined to ensure that potentially conflicting marks are found regardless of mark type. In some cases, depending on the overall design of a stylized mark, this may involve conducting a separate comprehensive search on the text itself.

Conducting a search when adopting a new trademark is important but crafting the best search strategy will result in the most comprehensive search results. Having comprehensive results will assist a brand owner in making an informed decision and weighing any future risks against the benefits of adopting a particular mark.

Contact our intellectual property attorneys for questions about trademark clearance searches and trademark search strategies.