Trade-Marks
3. Getting Started
(a) Trade-Marks Clearance and Pre-Screening
It is strongly recommended that you have pre-screening searches conducted before you finalize your trade-mark selection. Pre-screening searches are a good indicator of whether there are any prior trade-marks which could be cited by the Trade-marks Examiner against an application to register your trade-mark. Additionally, a search can help you to avoid infringing the prior existing trade-mark rights of others so as to avoid potential lawsuits. The clearance and pre-screening of potential trade-marks can be as simple as a quick computer search for "direct hits", or it can be an extremely detailed, thorough, and costly process. In fact, the variety of information sources and the methods of searching them are virtually open-ended. The main distinction in trade-mark searching is between searching only databases of registered trade-marks (including pending applications for registrations) and common law databases of unregistered trade-marks and trade names (the latter of which may be registered or unregistered). The level of searching you undertake will depend to a significant extent upon the level of risk you are prepared to accept, the amount of time you have to conduct the searches, and the financial resources available for searching. Plan to spend anywhere from about $CA 350.00 to $CA 1,500.00 to have a registered trade-mark agent simultaneously search each trade-mark in both Canada and the United States and provide an opinion on the registrability of the mark in both countries. These costs will be approximately halved if only one of the two countries is searched.