search

See Compliance Search, Concept Search, Contextual Search, Boolean Search, Full-Text Search, Fuzzy Search, Index, Keyword Search, Pattern Recognition, Proximity Search, QBIC, Sampling, and Search Engine.

After a trademark application is filed, the USPTO will conduct a search of USPTO records for conflicting marks as part of the official examination process. The official search is not done for the applicant but rather to determine whether the mark applied for can be registered. The USPTO advises applicants and/or their representatives to search the records before filing the application. A search may be conducted through TESS, or by visiting the Trademark Public Search Library, between 8:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. at Madison East, 1st Floor, 600 Dulany Street, Alexandria, VA 22313. Use of the Public Search Library is free to the public. Also, certain information may be searched at a Patent and Trademark Depository Library. These libraries have CD-ROMS containing the database of registered and pending marks, and Internet access to the Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS). (However, the CD-ROMS do not contain images of the design marks.)

-- locate your nearest PTDL

A study of available information in the field for the purpose of determining if any prior discovery makes the subject invention incapable of being patented or, if patentable, whether it infringes a prior issued patent.

The functionality of finding information in documents based on keywords found in the text of those documents or related to the properties of the documents. This is commonly referred to as full-text search. You must create full-text indexes to use full-text search. See also: index