Using the Trade Mark Search Tools

Trade mark registration is one of the strongest ways to defend a brand and a way to prevent anyone else from using it. If you do not register your trade mark, others may do so and acquire your rights to distinguish their goods and services.

However, before applying for a new trade mark, it is essential to make sure that you are free to use it in so far as it is not similar or identical to any trade mark already existing (registered) or the subject of an existing pending application for registration of a mark in the same classes of goods or services.

It is also important to regularly consult trade mark databases and the Office's Official Journal to check if similar or identical trade marks to yours are being registered. You may be interested in taking legal action against someone else's trade mark application or registration. The links below take you directly to each of the Irish Trade mark searching features of our site:

· Find an Irish Trade Mark by Number

· Search the Irish Trade Mark Database

· Search the Official Journal