Product clearance
Clearing a product before launch means two separate checks, not one: the name against the trademark registers, and the appearance against earlier registered designs. They fail independently. A name can be free while the shape infringes, and a design can be new while the name belongs to somebody else in your class.
Why one search is not enough
A trademark search looks at names. A design search looks at what the product looks like. Neither one tells you anything about the other, because they are different rights on different registers with different tests.
The launch that goes wrong usually cleared one of them and assumed the other. Packaging is the common case: the brand name checks out, and the bottle shape turns out to be somebody's registered design.
What the name check covers
Earlier registered marks that are identical or confusingly similar, in the classes covering your goods, in the territories you will sell in. Confusingly similar is the part people underestimate. Trademark law stops names that are close enough to confuse, not only identical ones.
Neither EUIPO nor UKIPO refuses an application because a similar mark already exists. They publish it and leave the earlier owner to oppose, so a clearance search is the only thing standing between you and finding out later.
What the design check covers
Whether the appearance is genuinely new, and whether it produces a different overall impression on an informed user than designs already out there.
This matters more than it sounds, because EUIPO does not examine designs for novelty at all. It checks the paperwork and registers, usually within weeks, so a registration certificate is not evidence that the design is valid. That question gets asked for the first time when a competitor applies to invalidate it. Prior design searches covers how that is checked.
Does disclosure kill the design?
Only after twelve months. You have a grace period of twelve months from first public disclosure in which your own disclosure does not destroy the novelty of your own design, which is what makes a test launch possible.
Past that window your own launch is prior art against you and the design cannot be registered. This is the deadline that catches product businesses, because it starts at the trade show or the crowdfunding page, not at the commercial launch.
What it costs
| Check | Scope | Price |
|---|---|---|
| EU trademark search, with written opinion | 3 classes | €358 |
| UK trademark search | 1 class | €230 |
| Bulgaria trademark search, with written opinion | 3 classes | €179 |
| EU design search, with written opinion | €400 |
Prices exclude VAT. The opinion is the part worth paying for: a list of near matches without a view on which three of them matter is not a decision you can act on.
When to run it
Before tooling, before packaging artwork, and before the name goes on anything. The cost of changing a product name rises sharply once it is in use, and rises again once a competitor has written to you about it.