Trademark database now in colour
Jinfo Blog

27th October 2008

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The large content aggregators contain data on many more topics that most of us could imagine. Dialog, now owned by ProQuest, is one such, with content covering all types of news, scientific material, patents, and business sources. TRADEMARKSCAN database (Dialog File 227) http://library.dialog.com/bluesheets/html/bl0227.html of Community Trademarks is one such niche product and it has recently been reloaded onto the system with the addition of colour images and other features. Newer records include descriptions of the goods or services, design phrases describing the image used in the trademark, lining/colour claims and notes in up to 20 languages. These new items have been added to the existing records, which also contain the name of the last reported owner of the trademark, the owner’s agent, and the history of the trademark application and registration. Some of the indexing has been modified to make searching easier. If a trademark has been published in the past 3 years, but is no longer in active use, it will be included in the database. The whole file contains 613,000 records and 244,500 images. Dialog is known for its OneSearch category searching and the use of EUROTMKS will let the researcher search the International Register, Community Trademarks, and individual European, Scandinavian and Central European trademark databases. The Community Trademark was created in 1996 by the Office of Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM) http://oami.europa.eu of the European Union. Through it, applicants file a single trademark application and obtain trademark protection in each of the EU member states. The value to business of the database is that it provides preliminary trademark screening to check on the availability of new product and service names. However research managers should be aware that if the trademark is not found on the database it does not mean that the trademark is available for use, and enquirers should be advised accordingly. The service can be used for initial checking only, but serious trademark research should be undertaking in conjunction with the appropriate legal counsel. One advantage of using the database is that, if a trademark is registered through it, the owner will get the exclusive right to use that trademark and will obtain a greater degree of protection from infringement.

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