WHAT DOES A BASIC TRADEMARK SEARCH DO?
A Basic Clearance Search provides a review of the registered Trademarks and pending applications that are similar to yours both phonetically and in overall appearance. The Basic Clearance Search is helpful in finding obvious and direct conflicts that may prevent the registration of your proposed mark, or cause potential disagreement with another party down the road.
The length of the process can vary. Once filed, an application is typically assigned to an Examining Attorney within approximately 3 months. If no conflicts are found and if no third-party protests or opposes the registration, then it is feasible for a registration to be issued 4-6 months after that. Therefore, at a minimum, the registration process will require 7-9 months, but it can require much more time (possibly years) if the Examining Attorney issues a refusal or if a third-party files an opposition to the application.
Maybe. This will truly depend on the pre-existing registration, including similarity of that mark to yours, similarity of the goods or services, the willingness of the registrant to take action against you, in addition to a multitude of other factors. It is important to understand that if you use a trademark that is already registered by someone else, you do so at your risk.
