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| Trademark.com | Legal Research |
 The frequent use of the hackneyed
term “search engine” makes it clear that any respectable attorney who regularly
surfs the Web must have mastered the art of effectively searching and retrieving
sought-after information. Depending upon the situation at hand, searching may relate to
intellectual property issues, typically involving patents or trademarks. In my practice,
searching via search engines such as Dogpile and InFind, and searching patents and
trademarks via MicroPatent have become a way of life.MicroPatent, which is available through its online resources at www.micropatent.com, provides its users with a comprehensive and fast intellectual property knowledge base that is accessible on a subscription basis. MicroPatent’s patent search engine, called PatentWeb, is an online patent retrieval tool. Besides expeditiously returning specified patents — front page or full text, PatentWeb enables instantaneous downloading of complete patents, complete histories and timely Official Gazette notices. MicroPatent’s trademark search engine, formerly called MarkSearch Pro, has been metamorphosed into e-commerce-flavored trademark.com. As this new name implies, trademark.com is designed to provide search capabilities that encompass all aspects of commerce. This is accomplished by including an invaluable common law database of unregistered marks, trade names, designs, logos, slogans, domain names and business names. Before initiating a trademark search, the appropriate database is selected by a single mouse-click from one of seven available databases including: U.S. Federal; United States & State; United States, State, & Common Law; United States & Common Law; State & Common Law; State; and Common Law. Thus, if it’s necessary to ascertain the existence of marks listed on the U.S. Principal or Supplemental Register, then the U.S. Federal database should be searched. If, on the other hand, a search of the registrations in one or more states is appropriate, then the State database should be searched. If any and all common law incidences of a mark are relevant, then, of course, the Common Law database should be included in the knowledgebase being searched. To determine the currency of the underlying data for each of the federal, state and common law databases, a Database Status button is displayed beside the database pull-down arrow. Shown in the Database Status screen is the source of brand-name compilations and telephone directories that comprise the Common Law database. Once the search criteria is entered in the window, the Search button is pressed, and MicroPatent takes control and delivers trademark-hits typically before I can enjoy more than a single sip of coffee. For searches that result in too many hits, normally limit fields would be invoked to reduce the number of hits. For instance, such fields as active/inactive, date of first use and mark appearance may be used to elaborate on the search criteria. While conducting a search using the common law database, however, limit fields may not be used. These fields are only applicable in the federal and state registration databases. For a broad search that needs to be limited in order to return only proper hits, it’s frequently advantageous to first conduct a field-limited search of the federal and/or state registration databases and then to conduct a field-unlimited search of the Common Law database. The cumulative results should tell the entire search story. Another tool is its NearXact search feature. A NearXact search limits hits to only the specified character string or numerals. For instance, a regular search of the common law database for the mark “Fetch” returns 14 hits including: Go Fetch, Fetch’N Sit, Fetch’N Step, and Step’N Fetch. On the other hand, a NearXact search for “fetch” returns only one hit for the mark Fetch alone. Similarly, a regular search of the federal registrations database for the mark “18” returns 345 hits including: Tour18, F-18 Super Hornet and Truly 18. However, a NearXact search for “18” returns only 13 hits for the mark 18 alone. After the search criteria has been suitably specified, individual hits are reviewed by clicking the corresponding record’s icon and may be selected to be included in the search report that’s generated by trademark.com. Also provided is a Check All button; an Uncheck All button also is provided if the Check All option was mistakenly invoked. The search report is generated by clicking the Create Report button and may be sent to the printer and saved for future reference. A convenient feature is that images contained in the search report may be saved as either GIF or BMP files (by placing the mouse pointer atop the image and then right-clicking) for cutting-and-pasting into customized reports to the client. Efficiency opportunities are afforded by the Preferences option. There is a plethora of options to consider including the type of displays, the hit record contents, search report contents, hits shown per page, inclusion of images, prompts for invalid fields, and detailed user-defined record and report formats. |
MicroPatent (800) 648-6787 www.trademark.com $85 four-hour research session, $6,000 annual subscription. Reviewed by Al Harrison, intellectual property attorney, Harrison & Egbert, Houston. PROS CONS VERDICT |
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