Ordered searches

Word similarity

“Word similarity” searches identify all marks that

  • are identical or similar in the searched Nice classes, or
  • are phonetically identical in any other class.

This search is the most comprehensive search offered by Fovea IP.

Word screening

This search stands between “word similarity” and “phonetically identical” searches. It allows the client to identify, at a lower cost, the major hurdles against one or more trademark projects before conducting a “full similarity” search.

These searches are limited to marks that

  • are identical, alphabetically or phonetically,
  • contain one additional, deleted or replaced letter, or
  • for slogans only, contain at least two phonetically identical words.

Phonetically identicals

This search identifies the identical marks, alphabetically or phonetically. This is the basic level of searching and the most limited strategy offered by Fovea IP.

Figurative similarity

For these searches, Fovea IP uses proprietary artificial intelligence technology which is similar to facial or fingerprint recognition applications.

This technology is more reliable than the previous systems that use Vienna classes.

Owners

“Owner” searches are available worldwide and are mainly used for portfolio audits.
These searches are trustworthy. However, they depend on several factors that Fovea IP does not control, such as:

  • Have all owner’s names been correctly spelled by the relevant Trademark Office?
  • Have all assignments and/or name changes been properly registered and published? An additional search of previous owners may be useful.
  • Has the transliteration been done correctly? Fovea IP uses tools that (partially) compensate for this problem.

Company names

These searches are performed using a global database that Fovea IP accesses but does not own.


Domain names

The Fovea IP database comprises over 300 000 000 domain names, including:

  • All .COM, .EU and national extensions.
  • Over 1,200 ‘generic Top-Level Domains’.
  • Over 300 ‘country code Top-Level Domains’.
  • The new ccTLDs and gTLDs are added as soon as available.

All above domains are constantly updated.

We cannot guarantee the comprehensiveness of our domain names database but believe it to be, globally, the most complete and accurate.

Design similarity

This type of search is performed among active and inactive design registrations in (up to) 96 jurisdictions.

For these searches, Fovea IP uses proprietary artificial intelligence technology which is similar to facial or fingerprint recognition applications.

This technology is more reliable than the previous systems that use Locarno classes.

Common Law

In most Common Law legal systems, it is recommended, however not required, to register a mark for it to be protected. Therefore, Fovea IP’s services search available publications, as well as the Internet, for all marks that could be confusingly similar to the mark searched which would not have been registered.

In use searches

An in use search identifies a serious usage/lack of usage of a trademark for a given product or service.

Our investigation services – which we farm out to a specialized firm – include:

  • An executive summary on the trademark usage;
  • Open-source research (OSINT – Open Source Intelligence);
  • Company records and information;
  • Website and domain analysis;
  • Professional and social media databases;
  • Internet search term trends;
  • Media and advertisement databases;
  • Discrete phone and/or email contact with the mark holder and/or affiliates.