Free Availability Search
We strongly recommend that before you invent and use a new brand or business name, we do a trade mark search to check on its legal availability. The last thing you want after you have spent a fortune in launch costs is to be faced with a court order to stop using the brand and have to bear all the costs of re-branding, re-advertising and re-marketing – not to mention the payment of any legal damages which may be ordered against you for using someone else’s registered trade mark in error.
If you have already adopted a particular brand or business name and are committed to using it, a trade mark search is not as important -although a search may assist in anticipating any problems which might be encountered in obtaining registration.
We would be happy to carry out a free preliminary search to screen the availability for registration of your brand or business name as a trade mark in South Africa. The results of the preliminary search will indicate whether or not further effort is justified in conducting a comprehensive search through the records of the relevant trade marks registry in order to anticipate any problems which may be encountered in securing registration. A fee is payable for such a comprehensive search, at the rate set out in the costs section.
Get Started!
Please complete and submit your details to us if you would like us to carry out a free preliminary trade mark search:
Please note that this preliminary search will only search for identical marks in South Africa and the results will be provisional. A comprehensive trade mark search can be conducted at the South African Trade Marks Registry at the rates set out in the costs section. We will also be pleased to quote you on searches at the trade mark registries in the various other countries of interest to you.